My Crimson Thread Of Fate
by Tomboi cherryblossom
Summary: Kaiya was just a normal girl, until some stranger kidnapped her from her bedroom! Now she's being told she's the daughter of a criminal, and not just any criminal. oh no. And what happens when she meets the guy she's been dreaming about for months? a bit slow in the beginning but better then it sounds i promise! humanSasoXoc slight KonanXNagato
1. Birthday Surprises

Hey. This is the first chapter of my first story My Crimson Thread Of Fate! first off this a Sasori love story yes, but it more follows my oc Kaiya, and dont worry about the age thing it'll all make sense in chapter 7-8! so I hope you enjoy and please tell me what you think! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Only this story and kaiya.

Birthday Surprises!

I looked around myself to see I was in a field of yellow flowers. Looking up towards the sky told me it was close to six o'clock and almost sunset, my favourite time of day. There was a slight breeze as well, which quickly reminded me that I was wearing very little clothing, just shorts and a tank top. Wrapping my arms around myself I sat down on the ground, waiting, I didn't know what exactly I was waiting for but the thought of moving to leave never once entered my mind.

"Kaiya?" I turned around to see _him_.

"Oh it's you. What are you doing here?" I asked a little more forcefully then intended, though he didn't seem affected at all.

"What do you mean? I've been waiting for you." He replied as he gave me the most dazzling smile I've ever seen in my whole life. The soft wind gently ruffled his crimson hair. All I could do was gaze into his beautiful brown eyes as my mind went completely blank. I saw his lips move and slowly realized he was talking to me. He was calling my name, but why?

"Kaiya." wait, since when did his voice sound like my mum's?

"Kaiya! Get up!"

* * *

"Ahhhhh!" I sat up so quickly I think I left my brain behind. "Huh? Wha-what happened?" I looked around my room trying to find the source of the noise that woke me up. Soon my eyes landed on my mum. Great. My mum would be your typical mum except a little bit cooler, as in she lets me be myself, she may not like it but she doesn't make me do something I don't want to. And she has the weirdest name ever, Katie, have you ever heard of the name Katie? That's what I thought. She's about 5'4 and has midnight black hair that comes to about her mid back, and bright green eyes like emeralds.

"Morning sweetie. Happy birthday!" Mum all but screamed in my ear. "Come on get up lazy bones breakfast is ready. Pancakes!" she left the room to do god knows what, probably torment my dad. Now my dad, unlike my mum, is nothing like your typical dad at all, He doesn't earn the money like most dads, mum does, and he doesn't like watching sport, mum does, and dad does the cooking and the cleaning and the washing. Now don't start thinking he's a wimp or a sissy, trust me you don't want to make that mistake, he was just brought up that way. My dads name is Enarkai or Narkai for short. He stands at 6'2 and is extremely solid with short dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.

Slowly I got up and made my way to the bathroom to have a shower. I'm an only child so I don't have to worry about sharing or stuff like that, Thank god. After my shower I got dressed in my favorite shirt, it was a little black corset top with a collar and a dark red tie, jeans with rips at the knees and a purple belt and black sneakers with purple shoe laces. This was pretty much what I wore every day, much to my mums chagrin, unless some special occasion that I need to get dressed up for, then I'll put on a nice pair of jeans.

Fifteen minutes later I was out, dressed and was brushing my long dark purple hair, mum swears I got it from my grandmother, but she died before I was born so I never got to meet her, when my dad knocked on the door. "Can I come in honey?" Uh-oh dad never calls me honey unless he had something bad to tell me, trying to soften the blow probably.

"Yeah dad. What's up?" I asked rather cautiously as I sat up on the sinks bench.

He just stood there for a while; contemplating what to say and what should be left unsaid. The whole time I sat there and kept quiet, letting him think. After a few minutes he finally looked ready to say what was on his mind.

"Honey can you meet me in the living room please?" double uh-oh. Dad never-ever asks me to meet him in the living room unless something's really wrong. To say I was worried was a big understatement.

"Dad what's wrong, did something happen? Did I do something wrong? Is mum okay? Are you okay?" It rushed out so fast I'm surprised he caught it all. He gave a small sad smile while shaking his head.

"I'll get your mother and we'll talk okay." I nodded, even though I knew something was wrong, especially since dad didn't say everything's fine like he normally would, and headed for the living room to wait.

It was about three minutes later mum and dad came though the door with grim faces. "Mum? Dad? What's going on?"

"Sweetie why don't you sit down?" my mother kindly suggested. And with what they were about to tell me I probably should have listened.

"No, I want to know what's going on!" I screamed aloud. My mum stepped back a little while dad didn't move an inch. Dad collected himself once again and tried to talk without angering me any further.

"Honey we have something important to tell you and we don't want to hurt you okay?" I nodded as a clear sign for dad to continue. "Kaiya you know we love you right?" again I nodded. "And we do everything in our power to keep you safe."

"Yes"

"So I want you to know that it kills us to do this…" I was starting to get really scared now. What was he talking about? "But we have no choice in the matter."

~ Flashback ~

Knock knock knock

"Argg" I looked over at the clock to see it was three fifteen in the morning and some one was knocking on the front door.

"Enarkai what time is it?" Katie asked in such a tired voice that I knew she hadn't been to sleep yet.

"Don't worry sweetheart go to sleep ok." She nodded and turned over to go to sleep.

Slowly, as not to wake up Kaiya, I made my way down to the door to give whoever it was a peace of my mind. "Who the hell do you think yo….u…are" I saw them, The dreaded red clouds on black and I froze. It was time. But no! It was too early; she was still too young damn it!

"Honey? Who is it?" I was just about to tell Katie to go back up stairs when I heard her gasp. "No" it was blearily a whisper but I caught it. And it shattered my heart even more to see her, standing there with her hand to her mouth trying not to cry out with all her might.

"It's time. Leader sent me here to pick her up." He said it like it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. Like he didn't want to take away our baby girl and throw her into an organization that thrived on stealing and killing and other unimaginable things. And he rightfully should.

"Please just give us more time. We haven't even told her yet!" I yelled trying to reason with the man, who could kill me in less then a blink of an eye. He gave a small almost silent sigh and seemed to think it over.

"You have until five PM tomorrow. No more, no less. I'll be back then to collect her weather she knows or not."

And with that he left without a sound.

~ End Of Flashback ~

"A few years before you were born your mother and I tried to have kids. We tried everything we could think of, hoping and praying we wouldn't have to adopt. It's not that we didn't like the children there it's just they weren't ours and they were all four years and up. None were really babies anymore and that's what we wanted you know. Eventually we went to the doctors to see what the problem was." Dad stopped to take a deep breath. Just when he was about to continue mum jumped in for him.

"It took about three weeks before we heard anything at all. We were just about to give up when we were called into the doctor's office. When he told us why we couldn't have children I felt like the lowest of the low. It turned out that a small accident that happened when I was seven had done permanent damage to my womb and I had a one in a million chance of getting pregnant." Mum looked like she was about to cry just thinking about it. I wanted to go to her and hug her as tight as I could and tell her everything was ok and that I loved her, but somehow I held myself back. I needed answers. And I needed then now.

"But you beat them didn't you. I mean I was born so…" I cut myself off when I saw my mother softly shake her head.

"We have some friends from a long time ago. They're in to some really dangerous work, no place for a baby, they didn't want to give their child up but it was for the best and so they found the best family they could and gave her to them to raise and prepare for the outside world, and someday they would take her home."

As I sat there and listen to my 'mother', tears started to run down my face. I wasn't crying, no sobs left my mouth, it was just tears. I don't know why they were there, I wasn't sad, I wasn't angry, I felt nothing. At that moment I was numb. Plain and simple. I was just so shocked that the people I've grown up to love, as my parents are nothing more then stand-ins, fakes, liars. I stood up intending to go to my room but my 'mother' once again was talking.

"They were trying to protect you. It's not like they didn't want you. They loved you and I'm sure they still do sweet-"

"DON'T call me that!" I hissed out so coldly you could see her heart break though her eyes, but I didn't care at the moment. She opened her mouth but 'dad' put his hand on her back and shook his head, and with that I was gone.

I stayed in my room most of the day, I didn't need to go to the bathroom and I wasn't hungry so I didn't need to leave, it had to be like four thirty by now. I was still in shock so when my window opened and someone came into my room I was completely unprepared for them to come up behind me and knock me unconscious.

I hadn't seen Kaiya at all since she left to go to her room and I was starting to worry. I was still shocked from when she told me not to call her sweetie. She's never done anything like that before in her life, although I couldn't blame her. It was a lot to take in. I looked over at the clock to see it was almost time. 'I better get her ready' I thought as I walked up to her room. Softly I knocked on the door; if she was asleep I sure as hell didn't want to wake her. She was far from a morning person.

When I didn't get a reply I took it as a sign that she was indeed asleep and went in, but the scene that greeted me was not what I had hoped. It looked like a hurricane had hit it. Twice! Taking everything she owned. All Kaiya's clothes were gone, her four books, her stuffed bear that she slept with every night. Everything! Something caught my eye on her bed side table; a note.

"Enarkai! Come here quick!" I yelled as if my life depended on it. Soon I saw my husband ran into the room. "It's Kaiya, she's gone!" I was almost in tears once again.

Enarkai reached for the note. "What does it say?" I asked almost afraid of the answer.

Akatsuki

That's all it said; akatsuki. Somehow I felt relieved and terrified at the same time. My baby girl, the very one I raised and cared for, was now with the akatsuki.

* * *

Oh god my head was killing me! Arg! Since when was my bed so lumpy? Oh right I was planing on running away, but I don't remember actually doing it.

"Finally awake I see, hmm." What the…?

" …"

"Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you." I looked to the guy that was talking to me to see a girl; well I would have thought he was a girl if I hadn't heard him talking a few seconds ago. He looked to be a bit older then me, 15 maybe 16. With his long blonde hair in a ponytail on top of his head that looked so soft clouds would be jealous. He was wearing gloves on his hands, though I don't know why, it wasn't cold at all, and he had like three different bags with him. He had these bright blue eyes that where so wide and innocent, and I would of thought he was except for the fact he just kidnapped me!

"What do you want from me?" I asked so timidly I barely recognized my own voice.

"I don't know." WHAT? He didn't know? How can he not know? He just kidnapped me didn't he? ARGG!

"What do you mean you don't know?" I asked once again low but this time it was in anger.

"Just that kid, I don't know yeah. I was just told to get you. That's it hmm." He replied with a simple shrug. I was just about ready to rip my hair out, or maybe his when I thought of something.

"Did you hurt my parents?" I felt bad for only remembering them now and not earlier.

"Settle down kitten, they're fine hmm. I just took you, wrote a note and then left. That's it yeah." He left a note? What the hell kind of kidnapper leaves a note!? Unless it was a ransom note? But he said he didn't know why he had to take me and he said that _he_ wrote the note. Only an idiot wouldn't be able figure it out. So it must say something else, but what? Oh this is giving me a headache.

"Ok if you don't know why you took me do you at least know where you're taking me?"

"Akatsuki."

"…..WHAT!?" that's it I'm out of here. I got up to walk away, knowing I wouldn't get very far but it was worth a shot right, only to be stopped by Blondie. I glared up at him. "Move it!"

He just grinned and shook his head. "You're not going anywhere without me kid hmm."

"Stop calling me kid!"

He started laughing at me, it was really annoying and just when I was about to yell at him AGAIN he stopped and looked around. "What?"

"Shh." He put his hand over my mouth and whispered in my ear "Someone's here yeah."

I pushed his hand away from my mouth so I could speak.

"So can't you just fight them off? You're akatsuki right? What's stopping you?"

"You are. I don't want to have to fight on my own and protect you at the same time. Not if I can avoid it anyways yeah." Hmph! I wouldn't get in the way! Would I? Whatever it didn't matter anyway. I was about to argue some more when he took his hand away and seemed to relax a bit.

"What the hell?!" I yelled as loud as I could, though he didn't so much as flinch. This guy was starting to get on my nerves.

"Come on we have to get back to Ame before tomorrow hmm." He started walking away at a fast pace and I could barely keep up.

"Why do we have to get there before tomorrow? And what's Ame?" when I asked the question Blondie look back at me as if I'd grown another head. "What?"

"You don't know what Amegakure is?" I shook my head no. "It's a hidden village hmm. You know what they are right?" this time I nodded. "Well Amegakure is the village hidden in the rain yeah. And it's where the leader of akatsuki stays most of the time."

"Oh I get it. So what's your name? My names Kaiya but you can call me Kai." I smiled up at him. Maybe just maybe if I can get him to let his guard down I can get away from him.

"Why do you need to know yeah?" he raised one blonde eyebrow in question.

"Well if I'm going to be stuck with you I think I should know your name. That is unless you rather I call you Blondie?" I smirked at the look on his face.

"My name is Deidara hmm." And that was the last thing he said for the next three hours! I tried to talk to him but he just ignored me. It was really starting to annoy me and just when I was at breaking point he stopped. In the middle of the road. And I almost bumped into him. He turned to his left and started walking again. Before I got the chance to ask what the hell he was doing, he stopped yet again. This time though he sat down and motioned for me to come over. "We'll rest here for the night hmm. We covered a lot of ground today so you might get to sleep in tomorrow. But I did say might hmm." With that he proceeded to make a small fire and then leaned against a tree. He grabbed one of the bags and dug around for a moment. After a minute or two he pulled something out and then threw it at me.

"What th-.." I glanced up at him with a questioning look in my eyes.

"It's food. Not the nicest tasting but it'll get you though till we get to Ame." With that said he started eating some of whatever it was he gave me. When I saw that he wasn't dramatically choking to his death, I to started to eat it. He was right when he said it wasn't tasty, I could barely get it down.

Once I was finished Deidara told me to get some sleep, and although I know you shouldn't fall asleep when with the enemy I was just too tired to say no to the land of dreams. So grudgingly I laid down and closed my eyes.

_I was walking. That's all I really knew at first. I was walking to somewhere, but where? I didn't know. I walked for at least ten minutes before I realized I was walking towards a park. As soon as the swings came into view I started running. I don't know why but I just had to get to them as fast as I could._

_Finally I reached them; I sat down and started to swing. I felt like I was missing something. Like a part of me was gone and would never come back. I didn't know why but I swore something was being pulled to me, like a magnet. I looked up to see him. Standing on the grass in all his glory. God he was beautiful. His blood red hair blowing in the wind. The sun setting just behind him and his dazzling smile that made me go weak at the knees every time I saw him. He strolled over to me at his own unrushed pace._

"_Kaiya. It's wonderful to see your smile again." He had this playful glint in his eyes as he said that. He walked up behind me and started to push me on the swing. _

_I had no idea what to say so I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the breeze on my face as he slowly pushed me higher and higher into the air. I started to feel light headed but also giddy so I started to giggle then outright laugh. I was having so much fun that I didn't realise that the park was changing, morphing into something straight out of a nightmare._

_Suddenly he stopped and slowly I came to a halt. Wondering what happened I turned around and opened my eyes to find nothing but dead bodies everywhere. I looked around trying to find him but I couldn't see him anywhere. He was gone. Just as I was starting to really freak out I heard someone calling my name._

"_Who's there?" I yelled hoping someone; anyone could save me from this hell. _

"_Kaiya get up!"_

"Huh?"

"I said get up yeah. Haven't you been listening hmm?" It was Deidara. He seemed pretty pissed about something, hmm I wonder what could've happened so early in the morning. Looking around I saw that the sun hadn't even risen yet!

"You have got to be kidding me?!" I screamed as loud as I could hoping to burst an eardrum or something as payback for waking me up this early!

"Come on I let you sleep in late enough now we have to go if you want to make it there by lunch, or do you want those food bars again, yeah?" Thinking back to last night and the taste of the bar, I quickly got ready and we were back on the road again within five minutes.

"So how much longer do we have to go?" I asked as sweetly as I could at what I assumed to be at least five in the morning.

"Awhile still. If you think you can handle it, we could go a little faster yeah?" I think I saw him smirking. Like he didn't think I could go faster! That bastard! Well I'll show him.

"Oh good. I was getting bored of this dawdling pace." I smirked right back at him and started walking ahead. Deidara looked at me, shrugged and moved in front once again.

Not two hours later I was beat! I was barely standing on my own let alone walking. Deidara could see this and slowed a little, just enough for me to catch up to him before he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as if I was a sack of potatoes!

"Hey! What the hell do you think your doing?!" I screamed. I was so stunned that I didn't notice that we were no longer on the ground running but jumping from tree to tree like a jungle cat.

"Getting you to leader faster hmm. What else would I be doing yeah?" He said it like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

"Put me down right now! You hear me? Right now!" I was kicking and punching as hard as I could but it was no use. He was much stronger than I was. That much was clear.

"Look you're obviously tired hmm. And you're slowing down which means it'll take longer to get back to leader yeah. Trust me you don't want to make him wait! He's almost as bad as my partner hmm." He gave a small, almost invisible, shudder.

"Who's your partner?" I asked softy. Almost scared to disturb the peace around me. I couldn't see any animals anywhere. It was like they were in hiding. Maybe they knew an Akatsuki member was close by. They too must have run away in fear. I didn't blame them really. Deidara was pretty intimidating when he wanted to be.

"Sasori: of the red sand yeah." Deidara replied. He almost sounded proud to say the name. He must really respect his partner, this Sasori guy.

"Sasori? What kind of name is that?" I snorted out a laugh. Sasori? What a weird name. Though my fun quickly ran away with its tail between its legs when I looked over at Deidara. Let's just say if looks could kill…. Well you get the picture.

"Don't ever insult my danna again hmm." He said it wish such poison in his voice I almost wet myself.

"Ok, ok. Sorry." I put my head down after that and stopped fighting him. There was no point really. He had won

It was a while before either one of us talked again, and it was even longer then that before we managed to hold a conversation, by now though at least I was on my own two feet again.

"So exactly how much longer until we get there? Where ever 'there' is." Deidara slowed down a bit to walk next to me as he replied.

"Not long now, about half an hour yeah. Heh you tired or something?" He asked with that smirk of his that just made you want to punch that pretty boy face of his in.

"No!" I snapped back as quick as lightning, a little too quick. His smirk just widened. I sighed. "Ok I am. But only a little! I can still keep going. I was just wondering is all." I mumbled the last bit and he had to lean in to hear me.

After that we just talked about random things, such as the weather in hidden rain, art, Deidara's passion and life, and what my life was like until he kidnapped me. I found that he really wasn't all that bad. To be honest I enjoyed his company. He was smart and funny and not too bad on the eye if I'm being completely truthful. I didn't notice how long we talked until he pointed out the gates of hidden rain to me.

"Wow we're here already? That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would!" I said as a smile lit up my face. It was bigger then I thought, and really beautiful! All the buildings looked as if they could touch the sky. "So now that we're here, where are we going?" I asked. My eyebrows drew down in confusion.

"My orders are to take you to leader yeah." He said simply. And then pointed in front of us to what was probably the biggest building in the whole village.

"Ok." We fell into a comfortable silence for a while. I was content to just look around and take in the gorgeous view of the city, until I noticed something. "Didn't you say it always rained?"

"I didn't say it always rained hmm. Just that it rained most of the time. Even leader can't maintain a justu forever yeah." He explained as we entered the building where this 'leader' of his was.

"Deidara." I stopped. Not knowing how to say what was on my mind.

"Yes hmm?" He turned around to face me.

"I'm scared." I finally squeaked out. I closed my eyes tight. Waiting for him to laugh at me. We had stopped walking now and were standing in the middle of the hallway. Alone.

He didn't say anything. All he did was put a hand on top of my head ruffling my hair a bit, before moving to keep walking me towards my fate.


	2. Meeting The Leader… And Daddy?

Meeting The Leader…. And Daddy?

We stopped in front of a door. It looked to be just like any other door you'd find in a normal house. But I knew that behind said door was a huge change to my life. Once I walked through that door I'd never be the same again. And god was I scared! Deidara had to practically push me through the door to get me inside the room.

The room looked to be an office. The leaders' office maybe? It had a desk and office chair, papers neatly stacked up in four different piles, there was two chairs in front of the desk as well. There was only one window and it was to the far right of the room. There was nothing really special about it. The walls where a dark brown, as was the carpet. All the wood in the room was a dark mahogany and the windows had black curtains covering them.

There were two other people in the room besides Deidara and myself. The first one I noticed was a woman. And a beautiful one at that! She had short bright blue hair that came to about her shoulders, tied up in a neat bun on top of her head with an origami rose in it. She had her labret pierced with a little silver ball. She was fairly tall and she looked dangerous, like she'd been in her fair share of fights. I didn't want to get on her bad side.

The rooms other occupant was a man. A very good-looking man. He had fiery orange hair and weird ringed eyes. His face was completely littered with piercings! He had six going alone the length of his nose, he had snake bites in his lip and seven in each ear, six along the outside and one going from top to bottom in both of them. His mere presence was overwhelming to say the least. He looked almost bored. His face void of any emotion.

I didn't know what to do, if I could trust that they wouldn't hurt me, but something in the back of my head told me I knew them. That we were somehow connected, as if my soul recognised them. But that was crazy right? I had never met them before. At least that's what I told myself.

"Thank you Deidara. That will be all. You can leave now." The man, whom I assumed to be the leader Deidara spoke of before, said.

With just a slight nod of his head Deidara left. And the man then looked directly at me. It was a while before he said anything else. He just watched me. Like he was assessing me, taking in every detail. But when he did speak to say I was shocked would have been the understatement of the year.

"Kaiya, do you know why you were brought here?" he asked as if I should already know why. Well I sort of did. I was here to meet my 'real' parents. But I was not told who they were, what they looked like, what they're names were. I knew next to nothing.

So 'no' was all I said. I figured that this man knew and he would tell me. Boy was I right.

"You were brought here because we feel you are now old enough to know who you really are. And who we really are." And the confusion I felt was just getting worse. "Did Katie and Enarkai explain that they were not your real parents?" he asked with a curious tone in his voice.

"They said that my real parents gave me to them to raise because it was 'no life for a baby'" I replied with two fingers acting as quotation marks around 'no life for a baby'. What was he trying to get at? Surely he wasn't implying…was he?

"They were correct. It wasn't. You would have been in constant danger. You wouldn't have been able to protect yourself. We did what we felt was in your best interest." He was gesturing to himself and the woman as he spoke. The man was about to continue but I jumped in before he could.

"What are you saying? That the two of you are my real mother and father?" I said in a surprisingly strong voice. My mind was running at a million miles per hour. I had to concisely remember to breath, which was slowly proving difficult. This man, who I couldn't remember ever seeing before was trying to tell me he was my father.

"Yes. We are." It was the woman this time. It was the first time I had heard her say anything. She sounded as composed as if she were commenting about the weather. She must have had years of controlling her emotions to be able to do that.

"Whoa back up a minute. Three days ago I was the daughter of a happy family living in a small village that hardly anyone knew of. And today your trying to tell me, I'm really the daughter of the leader of some hot shot criminal organisation?" by the end of it I was yelling. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.

"We were just doing what we thought would be best for you." Again it was the woman that spoke. And I turned on her with a glare that at the time I thought was threatening.

"Best for me? HAH! Don't make me laugh. Do you know what it was like to find out one day that all you know is a lie? Your whole life is fake. That the two people in your life that you're supposed to be able to trust and rely on no matter what have lied to you? No you don't! You are not my parents! Katie and Enarkai are and I want to go home! Right now!" I was in hysterics. Tears ran down my face, my cheeks were red from crying.

"Konan please show Kaiya to her room. You must be tired from the trip here. Maybe after some rest you will be less resistant and willing to listen." He no longer looked bored. He just looked tired. Or maybe anxious. It was hard to tell. He hid it well, whatever he was feeling.

"Of course Pain." The woman, Konan, responded, then turned to me and gestured to the door. "Follow me." And with that she walked out of the room. At first I wasn't going to follow her but after a few seconds I realised how exhausted I really was, so I did as I was told and followed her.

The building was a lot bigger then it looked from the outside. Filled with hallways and corridors and more doors then I could count. I had lost count at about 36. I was almost glad Konan was there. Without her I would be so lost by now, that I'd be in tears. Finally though, we stopped in front of a door that looked exactly like all the others. How am I meant to find my way around this place? It all looked the same! What have I gotten into?

"This is where you will be staying. There is a bathroom through that door over there. It has everything you'll need. The door to your right is a wardrobe. All your stuff has already been put in there for you. If you need anything else, press this," She explained as she handed me a little black box thing with a big red button in the middle. "And I'll be here within five minutes." With that all said she left without another word.

I took a closer look around my new room. It was the same theme as the leaders' office, brown walls and floors everything wood a dark mahogany. Although this room didn't have black curtains. In fact it didn't have windows altogether. I quickly made a bee line to the closet to check if my things were really there. Slowly I reached up and took the handles and softly pulled the doors open. True to her word there was all my stuff. I searched through it all for a bit looking for the one thing I wouldn't be able to live without. After about ten minutes of examining everything in all the bags I found him. My bear, my Toshi. Picking him up gently as I gradually got to my feet, made my way over to the bed and laid down with him in my arms, hugging him to my chest as firmly as I could without breaking him.

Sluggish tears ran down my face yet again. I was alone though. For the first time in a while. And so I took full advantage of it and I broke down. I must have cried for hours, perhaps days. I couldn't be sure. It was all just one big blur. As if someone had thrown a glass of water over a still wet painting and let the colours mix. I couldn't make anything out in my chaotic life. None of it made sense. I was just so confused! Why was this happening? And why now? Why me?

Finally I drifted off into a peaceful sleep. Without dreams, without nightmares. Just sleep.

* * *

I had no idea how long id been asleep for but when I woke up I felt refreshed. What awoke me was a knock at the door. Slowly I walked over to see who was there. I put my hand on the door knob but hesitated slightly. Who was on the other side of the door? What if it was that woman, Konan, again? What if it was the man? Maybe it was Deidara? Maybe they sent him to check up on me? I hadn't seen him, or even heard from him since he left the room yesterday, and was now wondering where he went.

With that in mind I finally turned the handle, but was disappointed to see that it was in fact Konan outside my room.

"Yes?" I asked in a tired voice. My eyes barely open.

"Come with me." Was all she said before she walked off fully expecting me to follow her.

She walked with such grace and confidence, her feet making little sound and head held high. Her sharp gaze watching everything, it would be incredibly hard to catch this woman off guard. As I was watching her I started noticing things about her. The shape of her face, her nose even her eyes, they were all the same. Everything. I was a spitting image of her. What if they were telling the truth? What if I really was their daughter?

But then I thought about the man. I thought of his face littered with piercings, no matter how hard I tried though I couldn't see any resemblance. Nothing. But then again not every child does look like both their parents. Oh I don't know.

I didn't have much time to contemplate it before we reached the office again. I still had mixed emotions about this door, only this time I knew what laid behind its pretence of normalness. It still looked like any other door but now I know what was there waiting for me on the other side.

Konan went inside the room first and took her place just behind the man, still seated at his desk, waiting for me to enter as well. As slow as a lazy cat half asleep I walked in and sat down in front of them. Nothing had changed in the room except there were only three stacks of papers this time, and they looked smaller then before as well. Light streamed into the room from the window, it had to be morning still, though it looked stormy outside. Natural rain must be on its way. What I wouldn't give to run around in it right now. Just to see if it really would wash away all my problems and fears.

"Good morning Kaiya. Are you feeling better today?" the man asked in a voice that seemed as if he couldn't care less about how I felt, though whether or not this was actually true was debatable.

"I slept well, if that's what you're asking." I replied in an 'I don't care' kind of tone that didn't affect him what-so-ever.

"Hmm." He gave a small short nod and stopped speaking for a while. "Well, I'm sure you have questions."

I nodded my head slightly. "Good. I'll explain as best as I can. If you still have any questions afterwards then, well, we'll go from there. Ok?" at my second nod of approval he gave a slight smile, barely a twitch of the lips. The smile didn't last long though. "When Konan fell pregnant with you we were fully intent on keeping you. We even started building a room for you and hired a trusted mid wife for when you were born. We kept it a secret for as long as we could, going as far as placing a jutsu to hide Konan's stomach when she started showing. But somehow people still found out. One day I was out on a mission. It was just a few rouge ninja causing trouble in a nearby village, nothing I couldn't handle. It took less than an hour and I was back. Konan should have been safe, but…" he gave a slight pause in his story, trying to find the right words. "it turned out that the rouge ninja were just a diversion, to get me away from Konan long enough for them to take her, and I fell for it. It wasn't hard to find them and even easier to rid the world of them but the damage was done, we knew that as long as you were with us you would be in danger, no matter how safe we thought you would be.

"It was only two months after that, when Konan gave birth and we had to give you up. It was no question who you would go to. Katie was always so good with children and was someone we knew we could trust without worrying about you, and so, when you were only one day old we gave you to them to raise. They readily agreed to have you, and knew one day, on your thirteenth birthday, we would take you back…" he left the sentence hanging in the air, letting me finish it myself. 'and now here we are.' I thought softly in my head. Maybe they weren't so bad. Maybe they really were just trying to protect me. Maybe.

"Now with that out of the way let's talk about the present. Since you have lived with Katie and Enarkai your whole life, you have missed years of training. Starting tomorrow we will be instructing you. If at any point you deicide there is something else you would like to learn, such as a specific weapon, just ask and we will do our best to help." He broke off for a second to let that sink in. "Now do you still have any questions?" Yes I did. I still had loads of them, but they could wait.

"I only have one. Do…" I stopped to take in a deep breath. If what he said was true, then I'd try. "Do I have to call you dad?" I asked in the most terrified, unconfident manner I'd heard in a long time. I felt like a little girl again. I didn't know what I was expecting him to say or do but what he did do was defiantly not what I had in mind. He gave the slightest of chuckles and, maybe, even almost smiled.

"If that is what you desire." He, dad, said. He glanced at the clock on the wall to his left. "I think that'll be all for now. I'm sure you're hungry. Konan..." she just gave a signal that she understood him, like always. It seemed that they didn't need many words to communicate, Konan, or I guess mum, always understood him. It was amazing.

"I'll make you some breakfast." Again she didn't say much. I don't think she ever does. Or maybe she just doesn't around me. Although something told me that wasn't the case.

"Ok. Thank you." I quietly responded and started walking behind her once again. "So err what kind of uh training will I be doing tomorrow?" I asked with a lot of uncertainty. I was scared out of my mind about this 'training'.

"Just the basics at first, hand to hand and fitness training. You will need to build up your strength and stamina otherwise you could severely hurt yourself." As always she didn't look back at me as she spoke, just continued to stare in front while she walked.

* * *

"Where are we going this time Dana?" Deidara asked as the pair walked leisurely to their destination. They had been walking for well over five hours, with no stopping. Deidara was far from tired, but he was a little hungry.

"Oto." Sasori replied with no interests in his voice at all. He was used to Deidara's pointless questioning by now. Though that didn't stop it from being irritating from time to time.

"And what is the mission again, yeah?" Deidara's signature lop-sided grin plastered over his face.

"Well if you had been paying attention like you were supposed to, you would know wouldn't you?" Sasori was in no mood for his partner's antics, but he found that when Deidara felt ignored he would be twice as aggravating.

Deidara could tell his partner was at his ropes end and thought it best to shut up. As much fun as it was to annoy Sasori, he did still like where his head was at this current time and didn't want it removed.

* * *

Breakfast was nothing overly special. Just some scrambled eggs on toast with a side of bacon and a cup of apple juice. I ate quickly, Konan was just standing a few feet behind me waiting for me to finish, and it just felt weird being watched. I had tried, multiple times, to make conversation, and each time her replies would be short and to the point, if she in fact replied at all, so after ten or so minutes of trying I gave up and continued to eat in silence.

Once I'd finished my food Konan walked me back to my room, guess she felt I'd get lost on my own, she was right, with all the twists and turns we had to take. How she remembered where everything was, was beyond me. It was going to take me a long time till I learnt my way around.

"Um Konan is there anything I could do for the day? I don't have much of anything in the way of entertainment…" I wasn't sure what i thought she would do or say to that, but what she told me, wasn't it.

"There's a library not too far from your room. If you wanted I could take you there later. It doesn't have much, but you may be able to find something to your liking." As always there was no emotion in her face or voice as she spoke but there was a hint of something there, something small and almost completely unnoticeable, but I caught it, whatever 'it' was.

Once we got to my room Konan left again with a promise to be back within the hour to take me to the library. Since I had nothing better to do I decided to organise my room a little, putting clothes in the cupboard and draws, shoes at the end of the bed, teddy bear on top of the pillows. Then I realized, I hadn't changed my clothes in about two days! With that in mind I went to take a shower to wash the build-up of dirt and grime that layered my body. It felt good to be clean again. When I got out I felt refreshed and renewed. Wrapping a towel around my body and hair I went and picked out what to wear. Choosing a pair of comfortable short shorts and a chocolate brown tank top.

By the time I was dried and dressed Konan was back and knocking on my door. "Coming!" I shouted as I threw on a pair of ballet slippers and walked out of the room.

* * *

It really wasn't far from my room, only the next corridor over, but i would probably still get lost for the first few times since my sense of direction was non-existent.

Now the library was a lot bigger then Konan had made it sound. It had to be at least three times the size of my room, and my room was pretty big. I was quite surprised at how much manga there was, two book shelf's that were as tall as me and twice as wide choc-a-block full! Now me, being the manga freak I was, went straight there, picked up the first book my hand landed on, sat down in front of the shelf, on the ground, and commenced reading. At some point Konan had left me to my reading, but me being so engrossed in my book, I didn't notice the door opening and/or closing.

I had to have been there for at least four hours, In that time I had read two books and was half way through my third, when Konan came back. Coming to stand next to me she waited patiently until I acknowledged her.

"I have prepared some lunch for you." She answered my unasked question.

Nodding my head slightly in response I quickly finished the page I was reading, memorised the page number and put the book back onto the shelf.

As we walked out of the library I looked at the clock, curious as to what the time really was. 12:46 was displayed in big bold numbers. I hadn't realized how late it was, I had read half the day away already, though I wasn't complaining, it was better than sitting around my room being bored with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

* * *

"Deidara, leader wants us back now. We have another mission." Sasori said, uninterested in what was happening around him.

They had decided to go to a village so Deidara could eat. Stopping at a dango shop Deidara was happy enough, and quiet.

"Yeah, just gimme a minute. I'm almost done." He replied through the food in his mouth.

"Idiot, eat with your mouth closed." Sasori sighed. His partner was such an annoying brat sometimes.

* * *

After we had lunch I asked Konan if she could show me around, so I wouldn't need to wait for her to go somewhere. And that took about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, until she brought me back to my room.

"I'll come get you when it's time for tea." And with that she was again gone.

With nothing else to do I went back to the library and got the book I was reading before and went back to my room to read, though it didn't take me long to finish it since I had already read half of it before. I put it back on the shelf and walked around a bit, seeing what else was in the library. There was all kinds of books, some were fiction some non-fiction. There were funny books, scary books. I found one about ninjas that looked interesting. I mean if I'm a ninja I should probably read up on them, I didn't know the first thing about ninjas so it would be a good idea.

It had a lot of information on a lot of different subjects, like ninja weapons, e.g. throwing stars, kunai etc. how and why ninja's use their chakra and it briefly went over summonings and why ninja's use them. It was fascinating to say the least, I couldn't put it down, and before I knew it Konan was back again to take me to the kitchen for more food, I wasn't complaining though, she was a great cook, and I was hungry.

"So what's for tea?" I asked randomly, trying to start a conversation once again.

"Steak with some vegetables." Was her quick response.

"Can we have gravy with it?" she was silent few a few moments before nodding, and then all was quiet until we got to the kitchen.

After tea I went back to my room for the rest of the night, my plain and boring room. Arrg! There has to be something to do here. Looking around though told me that no there wasn't anything to do, the room was still clean, I had read all my books, I had already had a shower and it was still too early to go to sleep yet.

Sitting down on the bed I started thinking about tomorrow, about my training, about my parents. Would this training be difficult? As of now I can't even run around the block once without losing my breath and almost falling over multiple times. How was I going to handle full-on fighting? Would they go easy on me, since I haven't had this kind of training before? Or would that make them go even harder so I could catch up faster? and when would I get to learn those cool jutsu's I saw in that book I read today? Or make a contract with a summons. Hmm I wonder what kind I want. It would have to be strong, not ugly, fast maybe even poisonous!

I wonder where Konan went after tea? She never sticks around for long, always going off somewhere else doing god knows what, hmm.

And where did Deidara go? I haven't seen him all day. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen anyone all day minus Konan and Pain that is. Wasn't Akatsuki supposed to have a lot of members or something? Where was everyone? I'll have to remember to ask Konan tomorrow when she comes to wake me up for breakfast.

I looked at the clock to see if it was still too early to go to bed, to see it was almost 11PM! Quickly I got dressed into a pair of pj pants and a singlet top, putting the clothes I wore today into the bathroom, jumped into bed and cuddled my bear until I slowly drifted off into a surprisingly peaceful, deep sleep.


	3. Training Begins Who Said It'd Be Easy?

hey guys. here's the third chapter. sorry it took a while to come out. well hope you enjoy, tell me what you think, you know how it goes.

Training Begins. Who Said This Would Be Easy?

Sitting in his office, looking over the village's current finances, Pain turned to address Konan.

"Konan."

"Yes?"

"Wake her up. It's time to start her training."

Nodding once, Konan left to do just that.

* * *

Slowly I opened my eyes. What in the world woke me up? I looked at the clock only to see it was just after 6. I was quite happily dreaming one minute, and then the next I was wide wake.

"Kaiya, it's time for breakfast. After which your training begins." Konan said through my bedroom door.

"Err yeah ok. Just let me get dress." I replied in a sleepy voice, still half asleep after being suddenly awoken.

"Very well. I'll come back in half an hour." After saying that, I heard her leave, leaving me alone once again.

With 30 minutes to spare I decided that a shower seem like a heavenly idea. Quickly finding some clothes that I thought would be good for a workout, I hopped into the shower and wash my hair and body, brushed my teeth and shaved my legs, all in about 10 minutes, I was rather proud of myself, getting out of the shower though it took all the will-power I could find. Drying off, I put on a dark purple tank top and a pair of black leggings, and then pulled my hair into a messy pony-tail. With that all done and still about five minutes until Konan would come back I sat down and continued reading the book about ninja's I had found yesterday.

I only managed to read about six pages before there was another knock at my door.

"Kaiya." Konan was of course; back again ready and waiting to take me to the kitchen for breakfast.

Opening the door I walked out, gave a half-hearted smile to Konan which wasn't returned, and then followed silently. Slowly we made our way to the kitchen and as I expected, the food was already there, just sitting there waiting to be devoured, and I hungrily respected its final wish.

Although I was staving, I took my time eating. I knew that once I had finished, I was to start my training, and I was still scared. I may have read up on it, knew more about it, but I was still unsure. I've never done anything like it before, I didn't know the first thing about fighting, I didn't even know how to throw a proper punch without injuring my own hand, not that I'd ever hit anyone before in my life, I just knew I'd manage to hurt myself while trying to hurt someone else, it just seemed like something I would do.

When I did finish breakfast Konan walked out of the room, as always, fully expecting me to follow, which as always I did without a word, and we made our way to what I was guessing was the training room.

* * *

Deidara was unusually quiet today, and it unnerved Sasori greatly. He was never this silent, ever; he always had something to say, even if it was better left unsaid. What had happened to leave him like this? As curious as Sasori was, he wasn't about to ruin such a miracle, so he left it alone. If something was bothering Deidara bad enough he would talk when he was ready, and if Sasori's luck held out, it would be a few more hours at least.

* * *

When we got to wherever it was we were going, we stopped and waited. For what I wasn't sure of, that was, until Pain strolled in, his face as emotionless as always.

"Good morning Kaiya. I'm going to just get straight to it." Taking a breath, he paused for a few seconds. "You will be in training for one full year, one week with me, then the next with Konan, then with me again, and so on. After which you will be sent on missions just like any other member of Akatsuki. Six months will be devoted to teaching you the basics. The last six months of the year will be for the more advanced study. We will start on your strength and stamina first, then speed and evasion, agility and fighting technics or hand to hand combat, weaponry and accuracy and lastly chakra control and jutsu, as in ninjutsu and genjutsu. We'll work on everything for one month each, for a total of five months, for the sixth month we will go over everything you have learnt, making sure you have perfected everything you can. Anything you can't do or have trouble in, we will try to help you work around it. After each day you're going to be studying up on the history of ninja's, all the hidden villages, the Kage's of said villages, any book I give you I expect to be read from cover to cover, understood?" He looked at me with a stern eye as he said this.

"Yes sir." Was all I could manage as a response, though he seemed please by it none the less.

"Good. After your six months you will be tested on everything you have learnt. First a written test and then a physical test. If you pass both then you may choose what it is you learn for the last six months, but choose wisely you cannot change your mind later." I nodded in acceptance and waited patiently for Pain to start speaking again.

"Now you will be expected to be here at precisely 6 AM every morning, no exceptions. Anything you need to do beforehand must be done _beforehand _got it?"

"Understood." I responded with my head held as high as I could in my half-asleep state of mind.

"You will be here until 6 PM where you have an hour to have dinner and then I want you studying until at least 9 PM, though you may continue for as long as you like, just as long as you are still up and ready in here by 6 I don't mind. It would be good if you took notes on what you read as well, but it is not essential." He took a quick breath, letting it all sink in. "Now do you have any questions before we begin?" His tone, though incredibly hard the whole time he was speaking, grew considerably gentler with the last sentence.

I shook my head no.

"Very well. I'll leave you two ladies to it." He left without another word.

I turned to Konan and waited for her instruction.

"I want you to start with some stretchers; it'll loosen up your muscles so you'll have less a chance of them seizing up in a couple of hours, plus you will be in less pain after." Konan drilled.

"O-okay." I didn't really know what she meant by stretchers so I just made them up as I went along. I guess I was doing something right because Konan looked rather happy.

After ten or so minutes of me doing my 'stretching' Konan told me to do twenty push-up's, then twenty sit-up, then twenty squats, then twenty crunches, then forty star jumps and then, do it all again. And again. And again. She finally told me to stop after an hour of the painful cycle, only to tell me to run on the spot. For thirty freaking minutes! Oh and when that was done, I had to do the cycle again for another two hours.

Just when I thought I was going to drop, Konan called an early lunch break. For any god listening, thank you!

"We'll continue in half an hour. That should be enough time to eat something." She started to walk away but suddenly stopped. "You have done well so far."

I felt my checks burn red with the compliment; I could almost swim in the ocean of pride I was feeling.

* * *

Sasori hated waiting. Hated it with a passion. So when his leader, lord Pain, was late, he was barely containing his rage.

"It's not like leader to keep people waiting; I wonder what's holding him up hmm." Deidara had finally started talking again, and Sasori wasn't sure if he was relieved or infuriated by it.

"Yeah." Sasori wasn't in the mood for random chit-chat at the moment; Pain said he had another mission for them and to get back ASAP, only now he was taking his damn sweet time meeting the both of them, to tell them about it.

After what felt like an eternity Pain walked through the office door and strode over to his desk to shuffle through some papers until he found the one he wanted.

"Your mission is to simply keep an eye on a gang of rouge ninja's. They pose no threat as of yet, but I don't want to take any chances. You may do what you like as long as it doesn't interfere with the mission. If they look like they may be trouble; deal with them. Take your time; I don't want either of you back for at least two months, understood?" Pain said in his usual no-nonsense tone, face betraying nothing of what may lay beneath.

"Yes, lord Pain." Sasori and Deidara said in unison.

"Any and all known information about them is here." Pain said while handing the papers to Deidara. "Alright we're done. You may leave."

* * *

For lunch I decided that a simple sandwich would be more than enough for me. My body, well past the point of pain by now, was uncomfortably numb. I could still feel everything but everywhere tingled, and when I touched something it would turn to an out-right vibration. All I was hoping for was that the pain wouldn't come back, although I knew it would, it was just a matter of when it came back.

I sat down trying to relax, if only a little, before I had to go back out there. It was hell! How could anyone do it? And they want me doing this every day? For a whole year! Were they trying to kill me? Oh please just let it end now.

Getting up painfully, I made my way back to the training room. My lunch break was almost up and I didn't want to be tardy on my first day, Konan wouldn't be impressed in the least, and with how hard she worked me today when she was happy, I defiantly didn't want to push her buttons, then I really would die from the work-outs.

When I finally got back, taking a few wrong turns it took me an extra ten minutes to find the room again, Konan was there waiting for me.

"Good you are back, and just in time as well. I want you to do some more stretchers while I go get some things. I'll only be a moment." She said as she walked off out of the room, leaving me to do as told.

* * *

Slowly making their way to their destination, Deidara was playing around with his clay, making an animal then squashing it and starting again to make another one. He usually only did this when he was worrying about something or nervous, though Sasori couldn't place what would unnerve the bomber nin enough to make him fidget like he was.

Deciding he'd finally had enough of his partner mucking around, he turned on him and waited. He was glaring pretty hard as well, not that Deidara could see this of course, but he could sense that Sasori was rather irritated.

"What's the matter Dana?" Deidara asked with a hint of innocents, clearly confused on what he's done this time to anger Sasori.

"Stop fidgeting. We need to keep alert of any enemies that may be close. And with you playing around like you were is not only distracting both of us, but if you were to accidently set one of your blasted bombs off we would be found instantly." Sasori lectured, making sure to get his argument across and into the blondes' thick skull.

"I would never let one off accidently yeah! I'm more careful then that Dana. You should give me more credit hmm." He retorted, trying to defend his wounded pride.

"Heh I only give credit where credit is due brat. Now come on we don't have all day." Sasori, not waiting to see if Deidara was following, started walking once again to where the rouges were last seen.

* * *

It took Konan a while to get back, but when she did she brought with her a heavy looking bag. Setting it down on the ground she once again turned to explain.

"Since we're working on your strength I've got some light weights to use." She said while pointing at said weights. They were only small, which would be good for me. "I want you to do your cycle again only this time you'll be using these as well." She handed me the smallest pair to start with, and then stood back to observe how well, or how bad, I did with the extra baggage.

For the rest of the day that's all we did. the same things over and over, although Konan did seem to lighten up towards the end, she even let me sit down for ten or so minutes and have a quick drink while she put all the weights back to where they came from. She did seem to some-what care how I was feeling, she just hid it really well most of the time, whenever I looked like I was about to faint she would tell me to do something else, something less strenuous. Having said that, she still pushed me well past what I though was my breaking point.

When tea time finally arrived I was more than happy to stop. And then drop. To say I was exhausted was a major understatement. I barely made it to the kitchen and onto my seat. As tired as I was though I still ate in silence and then went to my room.

I really wasn't that surprised to see a book on my bed, one that I hadn't taken from the library myself. Remembering that I had to study till at least nine, I hurled myself onto the bed and set myself up as comfortably as I could in my current state and began reading.

* * *

"Hey Dana? Do you think we could stop off at a dango shop soon yeah?" Deidara had tried his best not to piss Sasori off farther, but it was just so hard! It seemed that no matter what he did Sasori found it extremely annoying, if not downright frustrating.

"If it shuts you up, then yes." Sasori's voice became very deep while speaking inside his second favourite puppet.

* * *

I kept a close eye on the time and when it finally hit 9 O'clock I set the book down and walked to the bathroom, hoping that a hot shower would help ease at least some of the pain.

I was horribly wrong. It did nothing, even after I spent almost an hour in there. Feeling defeated I gave up and went back to my room to get dressed again.

Hopping into bed I found it incredibly hard to get comfortable and even harder to get to sleep. As painful as it was I just kept tossing and turning. For two hours that's all I did, until finally my brain gave way to the land of dreams, and of course, I dreamt of 'him' again. The man without a name, with hair blood red, a smile that made me want to blush every time I saw it and the touch so soft it would make me melt.

For the next six months that's what happened every day. Get up, have a shower, eat breakfast, train, eat lunch, train, eat tea, study, have another shower, spend one to two hours trying to get to sleep, dream of him and repeat. For the first month everyday both Konan and Pain would very slowly increase my training. I started out doing twenty push up's, and by the end of the month I was easily doing sixty. Same with jogging on the spot, at first it was difficult to go for half an hour, now I could go for two hours without batting an eye.

I found that learning to fight with and without weapons was in fact easy as well. I picked it up fast with little to no problems. I found that I worked best with small swords and daggers, so I decided on a pair of twin daggers as my weapon of choice. The thing I had the most trouble with was my aim. I soon found out how much it sucked, but thankfully with enough help that too was well onto perfection.

Chakra control I found, once it was fully explained in person and not just from a book, was not as hard as people make it out to be. Sure it took a few hits' and misses' before I got the hang of it but it still didn't take that long.

I found out that my chakra nature was mainly wind, and my second was lightening. I did have a third chakra nature; water, but it was a lot harder to control water type jutsu then it was wind or lighten. Good thing about me though would be that I have perfect control over my chakra that means that I don't waste any of it when doing jutsu's.

One weakness I had was in genjutsu. Sure I could tell straight away when I was in one and most of the time I had no trouble getting out of them, but when it came time to casting them, boy did I stink! The few times I managed to catch one of them in one, they had broken free again before I had the time to even blink! Konan once said that everyone has a weakness and that I'm lucky that its only casting a genjutsu I can't do. If it were something like taijutsu then I most likely wouldn't be a ninja at all.

Ninjutsu on the other hand it seemed I had a natural talent for. Jutsu that should take me weeks or even months to learn I got in just a few days, and even though I couldn't beat either of them yet, whenever I spared with Konan or Pain I gave them a run for their money.

After about five weeks of training the pain died down considerably and by seven there was no pain at all. Things were looking up.

Except even after being in Akatsuki for six months I had never once seen anybody bar my parents. Every now and then I'd wonder where Deidara was, if he was even still alive, but I never asked about him, or about anyone for that matter. I may have gotten a little closer to both Konan and Pain, I still didn't know them, still didn't feel any attachment to either of them. Until the night before my six month exams.

For the whole day I was allowed to do as I pleased in preparation for the tests tomorrow. Weather I wanted to relax, mind and body, or do some last minute studying, it was for me to decide. I picked relaxation of course. I didn't get out of bed until 7, I tried to go back to sleep but my body wouldn't have of it so up I got and had a shower to wash away my sleepiness. My hair had grown down to my lower back and seemed to almost shine now. It also seemed brighter, it was still the same shade of purple it always was but I don't know.

Getting dressed into a pair of jeans and a strapless white shirt I made my way to get some breakfast. It was still early but Konan of course was up and had already eaten. Going to the fridge I got out some juice, apple and black current, my favourite, and sat down beside her.

"Morning." I called out in a chirpy voice. It took me a few months but I found out that just because Konan didn't smile back much it didn't mean that she didn't like me smiling at her, when I did she would get this look, hardly noticeable unless you know what to look for.

"Good morning Kaiya." She replied while taking a sip of her green tea.

Placing the mug down she picked up a piece of paper and started folding it again and again. I've seen her do it a hundred times before but I never really paid that much attention to it, I was always so busy thinking about my training or my studying or hell even how much pain I was in would come before watching her make origami.

But now that I was watching her I couldn't look away. It was amazing, how she could turn such ordinary squares of paper into any animal I could think of.

"Um K-Konan?" She stopped what she was doing for a moment and looked up at me. Waiting for me to continue. "I was wondering if you could, maybe, teach me how you do that?"

She thought for a moment and then nodded her head and gave as good a smile as Konan could do, which was merely a twitch of her lips that didn't last long, but it was enough for me.

"What would you like to learn?" She asked me while grabbing two new pieces of paper.

"Err what would be easy?" The things she was making looked like they'd just go over my head.

"How about a lotus?" She thought out loud.

A lotus? Yeah that didn't seem to complicated. With my approval she started showing me how to do the lotus. It really was easy, it was just pretty much the same folding over and over again. After the lotus she showed me how to make a rocket and then a dragon. All up we spent nearly two hours together, her teaching me all kinds of different origami animals. It was the first time since I stepped foot in that door six months ago that I really did feel like her daughter, felt like she was my mother.

"Pain is calling me. We'll have to continue this later." That was her way of saying she had fun, and we should do it again sometime soon. Smiling I nodded my head.

"Yeah that's ok. Thanks," I paused for a slight second, unsure if what I was about to do would be wise. "mum."

She smiled! She actually smiled. Not just her usual twitch of the lips, but a full on heart-warming smile. It was beautiful to see. She should do it more often.

After some thinking I went back to my room to do some much needed catching up on my reading.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" Konan asked Pain tenderly, although even after years, it was still hard to see him in that body. She had once love Yahiko very much and seeing him, even if it was Nagato, broke her heart.

"Konan. I need you to do something for me." Nagato stated in the same tone Konan had used moments before.

"Of course."

* * *

I read until lunch time, which was about twelve thirty when I got hungry. I put the book back onto my book shelf, mum thought since I loved reading so much it would save me the time of going back and forth between the library and my bedroom so she let me take one of the spare shelves.

It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to learn my way around the building. About a month in I found out that the place had a lounge room with a TV and fire place, so it was my favourite room to relax, not that I had much time _to_ relax, when I got the chance that was where I would go. Every few weeks when things got really hectic for the village and both mum and Pain had to work they would let me have a day off.

I spent the rest of the day watching TV, flicking trough the channels until I found something I wanted to watch. Since I wasn't training today I didn't need two showers so I went straight to bed. Even though it was only eight O'clock I wanted an early start for tomorrow's test.

* * *

Konan was beyond happy. Kaiya was finally coming to terms with what happened and she was excepting her as her mother. She might not show it but it meant a lot to her when Kaiya called her 'mum'. She was determined not to screw it up this time. She wasn't going to lose her a second time. Konan just hoped that Kaiya would let Pain in like she did with her. And soon.

* * *

I woke up with a start, to someone knocking on my door. Looking at the clock on the wall behind my bed I saw it was almost six. 'Crap!' I thought. "I slept in? I never sleep in!"

"Kaiya wake up. Your first test starts in ten minutes." It was mum, though I already knew that before she spoke. Pain never came to wake me up.

"Sorry mum! I'm just getting dressed now. I won't be late I promise." I yelled back while throwing the blanket away and getting up out of bed. 'I don't have time for a shower or breakfast today.' The whole time I was getting dressed I wondered how I slept in. I made sure to go to bed early last night so I'd get up in time. What in the world happened?

I managed to get dressed and get to the training room with time to spare. Both mum and Pain were already there waiting for me.

"Morning." I sang when I walked up to them. Mum greeted me back while Pain just nodded.

"You will start with the written test first. You'll have two hours to complete it, you shouldn't need that long, but just in case. Once you have finished hand it into my office and you'll then have one hour to eat and prepare for your next test. Good luck." Pain handed me my test papers and two pencils with rubbers on the ends.

I walked over to the desk and chair they had provided for me and got to work.

It was a piece of cake! If I didn't know any better I'd say they purposely choose questions that had obvious answers. I breezed through it in an hour, they may have been easy but there were a lot of questions. Some were a little tricky and some were just plain stupid. Like 'if an enemy ninja calls for back up what would you do?' a) run away b) take them down and wait for their back up c) do nothing or d) start dancing like a chicken. Like come on who would honestly pick d? I wanna know who made this test in the first place. I don't know if I want to shake their hand or smack 'em in the face.

Making my way to Pain's office I started wondering what my next test would be. All I knew was that it was a physical test. That could mean almost anything. My guess was that I had to show how well I'd advanced but how I was meant to do that was anyone's guess.

* * *

Pain was sitting at his desk, waiting for Kaiya to bring her written test to him. If he knew her as well as he thought he did, she'd be knocking on his door any minute now. As luck would have it she turned up not five minutes after he thought that.

"Come in." He ordered softly, knowing it was his daughter.

"I've finished." Kaiya said while she walked into the cosy office. Handing him the papers she stood in front of him waiting for his next instructions.

"Very good. You may leave now. Meet me back here in one hour." Pain wasn't good at praise but Kaiya knew he was proud of her and it made her feel all warm inside. Sure they weren't really close but knowing that a man like Pain was happy with her hard work it was enough to make anyone smile stupidly; which is what Kaiya did for the next ten or so minutes while she want to go get food.

Looking over her work Pain was quite impressed. She got a perfect score. Even chunin that spent years learning this stuff found it at the very least a little complex. She was going to become a fine ninja.

* * *

After I ate my food, had a shower and got dressed into something a little more appropriate for the second part to my test I went back to Pains office refreshed and ready for anything. Well almost anything.

"Your second test is…"


	4. The Second Test, I'm Fighting Who Now?

I am so so so sorry for taking so long to update! it seems lately it's just one thing after another, and i wish i could say that the next chapter will be up faster but it's not looking likely. SORRY! please don't hate me! I've gotten a little busy but dont worry this story will go on! oh and pretty please tell me what you think, they make me happy. no joke so far every review I've gotten I've jumped up and down like an idiot! anyway enjoy.

* * *

The Second Test. I'm Fighting Who Now?

"Your second test is a sparring match; between you and myself." Pain stated casually.

"Wait what? I thought I had to pass the test to choose what I get to learn for the rest of the year?" I retorted. 'There's no way I'll pass now! No wonder the first exam was so easy!"

"You don't have to defeat me to pass Kaiya. I would be surprised if you did beat me. All you have to do is show how far you've really come. I'll be testing you on a number of things through-out our spar and if I feel that you have done well then I'll pass you. Simple." He explained, making me feel like a complete idiot.

"Oh." Was my, oh so amazing, reply. While he was talking I was double checking I had everything. 'Kunai, check. Shuriken, check. Daggers, check. Wire, check. Scroll, check. Alright I'm good to go.' I had made sure I didn't miss anything before I left my room, but I still felt better going over everything again. "So when and where is this match going to be? As big as the training room is I don't think it's big enough for an all-out fight, not to mention that a key part of being a ninja is knowing how to hide yourself, and in there, there's no place _to _hide, it's completely open." I raked on. Could you tell I was just an itty bit nervous?

"Very good Kaiya. And your right, we're not going to the training room. There is a clearing not too far out of the village. We're going there."

* * *

'Not too far out?' HAH! Yeah right! It took us over half an hour to get there; and that was with us traveling as fast as we could, without the help of chakra. It would have taken well over an hour if we were walking, but thankfully we weren't. When we did get there though it was just a normal everyday clearing. Nothing special about it. It had trees and plants and grass and dirt just like any other clearing. But for what we needed it for it was perfect.

"I'm going to give you five minutes alone to set up anything you may need. When that time is up I'll come back and the test will start. I will not give warning when five minutes is finished. You will have to work fast. I will not give any leeway today." With that all said he left and didn't turn back.

Assuming my five minutes started the second he left I got to work setting up as many traps as I could in the given time frame, the whole time trying to stay as silent as possible. When I was finished I still had twenty seconds by my count to find a good hiding place. Quickly and quietly I jumped up into a random tree that was next to me and waited.

I wasn't waiting long before Pain was back and looking for me. His eyes moving so fast to find where I was it almost looked like they weren't moving at all. I knew I had been spotted when he went dead still and went for his weapons pouch. Making his way to my tree he pulled out a kunai knife and flicked it in my direction.

And completely missed me! What the hell? He's never missed me befo…..

That sneaky bastard. He pulled my trap. Then again I should've expected it. He's much too good to get caught in such a simple trap. But I still should have earned a few brownie points for it none the less. It was a good trap, and well hidden, any ninja who wasn't S-ranked would have fallen for it. Too bad for me Pain was S-ranked.

I still had another three traps set up. I would be fine.

"There is no point in hiding Kaiya. I know where you are." He practically sang out the words, looking straight at me.

'Good I was getting bored anyway.' Jumping out of the tree and landing in front of him I got into a fighting stance, readying myself for the attack that was sure to come.

"Taijutsu." That's all the warning I got before he started laying into me. Punches and kicks and elbows and knees. I was hardly keeping up. As soon as I blocked one thing, something else was already coming at me. The fact that I wasn't getting hit though was an improvement in itself, and a lot more than what most ninja could say. Pain was fast, to the untrained eye he would be nothing more than a blur, few people could keep up with him, I was one of those few, and even less people could hit him. Only problem was that my stamina was nowhere near as good as his; after only an hour and a half I was slowing down, getting sloppy, and missing him poorly, when he wasn't even breaking a sweat. It just demonstrated how much I still needed to improve.

"Weapons." Again that's all I got before he changed the rules. He jumped a couple of feet away and grabbed three shuriken that he carelessly tossed toward me.

Easily dodging them I threw a kunai at him, and while his concentration was on that I made a shadow clone, gave it the scroll and sent it to hide in the trees. Getting out my twin daggers I once again got into my fighting stance.

He took out his own katana and stood at the ready. In a split second we were at each others throat slicing, jabbing, and swinging as fast as we could. Fortunately for me this was the only thing I had even the slightest chance at beating him at. He was good; no doubt about it, but this was my specialty. I trained my butt off to become a master with my daggers; since the time I first picked them up I practiced every day I possibly could. Every strike I made was smooth, without flaw, even though I was still warn out from the taijutsu just moments before, it was perfect. The only thing Pain had over me was experience.

We were fighting for about an hour like this. I was slowly weakening, and he could tell. Normally I could last three hours easy; but with Pain purposely pushing me to my limits like he was, I just couldn't do it.

"Ninjutsu." Quickly jumping back I narrowly miss the fire ball jutsu he aimed at me. Making sure all my traps were still there and ready, I put my daggers back into their holsters at my hips and made all the hand signs for a simple and small hurricane to try and push him back into the one he was directly in front of; but of course he knew exactly what my plans were and avoided not only the trap but my jutsu as well. He targeted me with another fire style only this time it was like a fine sheet of fire rain, only about 5 inch's wide and it was almost above me. I forced my chakra to my feet and ran up the closest tree, then forced some chakra into the tree to prevent it from catching fire. After this was done I did the hand signs and sprayed water from my mouth, hoping that it would help stop the fire.

It didn't. Big shock there. So instead I turned my jutsu onto Pain; again he moved to evade it but it did make him stop the fire rain, which was my main objective.

Leaping out of the tree I made my way over to him. I made hand signs with one hand and grabbed my daggers with the other, I sent a lightning style to the blades, super charging them up. Just a small scratch with one and you'd have third degree burns for a week. Of course it would do me no good if I couldn't get close enough to give him that little scratch, at least he was spending the whole time dodging my blades and not paying attention to what was going on behind him.

This went on for another half hour, and I loved being on the offensive, but it wouldn't take much for our positions to be switched. Just one false step, one wrong move and I'd be done for, and he knew it as well, but for some bizarre reason he continued to stay defensive, and although I wasn't complaining; I was cautious.

'It doesn't matter if he tries to do anything now. The preparations are almost complete. This fight will be over sooner then he thought.' Pushing him back further into the trees I jumped back as fast as I could, making sure I was well out of range of what I had planned.

Just as I landed onto a tree a few yards away from him, my shadow clone started. Blue light shined up from the ground, making a ring shape around Pain. It was a jutsu that mum once showed me; it was big and flashy but all it really did was drain the person's chakra and locked it away into a blank scroll so they couldn't fight. It wasn't deadly or fatal but it did the job. When it got so low that they would have trouble getting up on their own was when the jutsu would stop. It was meanly used for last resorts or if you were trying to catch a person without killing them.

Slowly he was brought to his knees and just as I was about to do a little victory dance; he went poof!

'Poof? But he can't go poof! I caught him! He never had time to make a shadow clone! Unless, he did it while I was running to the tree when he made the fire rain? Then he knew all along about my plan, right from the beginning!' bringing my attention back to our fight I narrowly missed another water jutsu, this one some kind of water missiles. 'If he keeps throwing water style jutsu's at me I'll be forced to stop feeding my blades the lightning or else I'll end up electrocuting myself!'

"Water style: wild water wave!" as soon as the words hit my ears I threw my daggers as far away as I possibly could, knowing I'd be done for if they were anywhere near me or the water that was quickly coming my way.

I made a mad dash to the closest tree, and jumped up to the highest branch that would support my weight. Now out of immediate danger I made a few hand signs and made to aim a lightning bolt at the water spewing from Pains mouth, only he saw what I was doing in time to stop it from hurting him.

"Genjutsu." After he said that, he landed on the branch I was on and forced me back out into the open field where he continued to attack me, but he went back to weapons and taijutsu. It was just too obvious that he'd already put me in the genjutsu before he first started on me again.

Making the hand signs I released myself to see that both of us were still where we were before he caught me. I was still on the branch and he was still on the ground just a few feet away from my tree. It hadn't even been five minutes before I got out, which for most jonin would have been at the very least a little difficult if they had my opponent.

Pain knew that I was bad at casting my own genjutsu's but I tried my luck anyway. Making the hand signs I created just a simple illusion, nothing flashy, the ground turned to glue so he was unable to move from his spot, and then a thousand kunai rained upon him; but it was too easy for him to break free so it didn't last more than two minutes. 'He knew, he was just humouring me. He knew straight away he was in my genjutsu.'

Running towards him, I noticed something out the corner of my eye. 'Wait a second.' I did a double take. 'Oh hell! How did I miss this?' I was still in his first illusion. I hadn't gotten out of it like I thought I had, he'd layered one on top of the other, so when I got rid of the first I wouldn't go looking for the second.

"Release!" I yelled and like always, the scene melted away.

Picking up my twin daggers, I ran for him. Charging up both of them with the lightning jutsu a second time I swung to hit him only to be stopped by mum.

"What's going on? Why did you stop me?" I asked, breathing heavily, with a hint of curiosity in my voice, though my surprise and annoyance did slightly leek into my question as well, even though I did try to hide it.

"The test is over. You have proven all you can today. Go back to your room. I'll come get you later for lunch and your results." Mum replied with no emotion in her speech, but I did see a little pride in her eyes, which did very little to deflate my currently oversized ego. I'd been fighting Pain for well over four hours now; and yet I still lived to tell the tale, and I could even walk to boot!

"Okay." I smiled lightly, putting my blades away and slowly walking back to what I like to call 'Akatsuki HQ'.

* * *

Deidara and Sasori had finally found their targets after three months of non-stop searching. Even though they were Akatsuki, the rouges knew how to cover their tracks, so the pair had spent many sleepless nights following any lead they could pick up. When the group was found, Sasori made a point that it would be best to watch from the shadows just a little longer, to see what the nin's objectives really were.

There were only about 10 to 15 but It seemed that they were planning something, something big, though no matter how long the duo watch or how close they got, it was never said. That information was very carefully handled and only a select few in the whole group actually knew what that objective was, everyone else were just little pawns, helplessly doing as they were told, never questioning orders.

So they waited. As much as Sasori hated it, it was all they could do for now, so he put up with it.

* * *

When I got back to my room I was all too happy to flop down onto my bed and read a book. That last test had taken a lot out of me, but at least it was over and done with now and soon I would know just how far I had progressed these last six months. I had worked myself into the ground to get where I was today, and looking back on my first training session, I really had improved; well at least I thought so anyway. I just hoped Pain thought so too. It was up to him whether or not I passed or failed today, and I was getting a bit nervous, but mum was happy with what she saw, if the look in her eyes when she stopped me earlier had been any indication. Not dwelling on it for long I patiently waited for the knock that signaled food.

Twenty minutes after I got back sure enough mum knocked and waited for me to come out.

"Pain would like to see you before you eat." Mum answered my unasked question.

"Ok. Any chance of you telling me my results here and now?" I asked with a cheeky grin on my face, knowing she wouldn't but asking anyway for the hell of it.

"No, Pain wants to tell you himself." She responded softly with her eyes straight ahead of her, not once looking down at me.

Five minutes later I was standing in front of Pain's desk; waiting for him to speak.

"Congratulations Kaiya. You passed both exams." He said with a hint of pride showing in his eyes, but as always it was hard to find unless you were looking for it. "As you know, since you passed you may choose what it is you want to study from now on."

"Yes sir." I replied in a low but happy voice. I knew what I wanted to learn. I'd known for a while, which is why I had worked so hard to make sure I passed.

"Have you given any thought to what you would like?" Curiosity lit up his face.

"Yes sir. I would like to learn medical-ninjutsu." I stated, with a slight bow of respect.

Pain thought about this for a while; weighing the pros and cons of letting me pursue that kind of training. After a moment of complete silence, he spoke.

"It would be beneficial to the Akatsuki to have a medic. Very well, you will begin your new training tomorrow; for now though I suggests you rest up." Finishing his short speech, he waved his hand towards the door, indicating a dismissal.

Mum didn't follow me out to the kitchen so I figured I'd make myself something instead of waiting for her. You never could tell how long it would take to get out of Pains office.

Deciding on flame-broiled fish I got to work making them, the kitchen was always fully stocked with everything you could need, so I'd learnt how to make a lot of different things while I was here. I made a second one just in case mum wanted one as well; it was her favourite after all.

Setting myself up at the table I started eating while wondering about how tomorrow would go. It wasn't long before mum came in; with her almost smile in place as she found the fish and sat down next to me.

"Hey mum?" I turned in my seat to get a better look at her while I was talking.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if maybe you could show me how to do some more origami?" I begged after I finished what was in my mouth.

She simply nodded her head and went back to the food, deep in thought about who knew what.

* * *

I. Was. Bored! After mum and I had spent a bit of time mucking around with the sheets of paper, making all kinds of weird and wonderful creations, Pain called her back into his office, leaving me to entertain myself.

Now this usually wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that I'd never just lazed around 'Akatsuki HQ' so many days in a row. After six months of practically non-stop work-out's and studying, relaxing and doing nothing seem almost like a criminal act. It was hard to stay still. All I wanted to do was go back to the training room, but I damn well knew that my new medical lessons would be a lot harder than what I was currently used to. You needed perfect chakra control, a straight mind, patients, and most importantly, a lot of energy. I knew it was going to take a lot out of me for the first few months, if not longer, and I would need to be as well rested as I could be. but still, GAHH!

Going back to my room, I picked up my book once again and started reading where I had left off before mum came and interrupted me.

* * *

"You wanted to see me Nagato?"

Looking up from his paper work, Pain's eyes rested on the beautiful woman before him.

"Yes. I need you to go to the head medic in the village and request that they take Kaiya on as a student. Just until she learns the basics'." Pain stated in his usual monotone, but his eyes were considerably softer as he gazed at Konan. As emotionless as he seemed, only a complete fool wouldn't be able to see just how much Konan meant to him.

"Of course. Will that be all?" She replied in her low, but none the less sweet voice.

"Yes. You may leave."

Nodding, she walked back out through the door she came in, to go do gods will.

* * *

"Target located." Said a voice that seemed to come from out of nowhere.

"Are you in place?" came another voice, this one though was behind a tree, the body it belonged to near impossible to see.

"Yeah, hmm."

"Good. Get ready; he'll put up a fight, and we cannot risk being caught." The second, more annoyed voice explained for the third time that hour alone.

"I know, I know, yeah." A sigh was heard from the invisible voice. "I still don't see why we're doing this though."

"Because it is our mission." Short and to the point, just like all the other responses from Sasori. He was in a particularly bad mood that morning and it hadn't gotten any better as the day progressed; if anything, Deidara's idiocy had only made it worse. The annoying blonde hadn't stop yapping about his 'art' and about how he would bring Itachi to his knees with it. It got old fast, but he repeated himself anyway, as if the more he said it, the more likely it would happen. "Just make sure you don't lose sight of him. Remember, we strike when the sun goes down."

"I got it."

* * *

Stretching my arms over my head, I let out a jaw cracking yawn. I'd finally finished my book and was now bored to death of reading, which was something I never thought would ever happen, but alas I was.

It was getting close to tea time thankfully so at least then I'd have something to do; Even if it was simply eating. I just wanted today to be over. I was over excited about tomorrow, about how my new training would go. Would it still be with mum and Pain? Or would I have someone else teach me? And if it was someone else, what would they be like? Would they be nice; or maybe strict? Male, female, more than just one; I just wanted to know already. I didn't really care what happened, but the anticipation was killing me!

Sighing for the umpteenth time since I'd gotten back to my room, I decided to have a quick shower to refresh myself before mum called me for tea.

* * *

Walking up to the receptionist Konan politely asked to see the head medic, she had thought over what she would say on the way over to the small hospital on the other side of the village, and knew anyone in their right mind would accept the offer that Konan was about to give. She was gods' angel and was adored by all of the villagers; ninjas and civilians alike, they would not say no to her, which is why Pain asked her to do it.

She knocked on the door and waited to be granted entrance.

"Come in."

Walking into the tiny square office Konan stopped just before the medic and waited patiently for her to look up.

"Oh! Lady Angel! What a pleasant surprise. What may I do for you my lady?" The woman smiled fondly at Konan in a way that only an older woman could, with eyes that held a wisdom and knowledge that only time and age could teach. She looked to be in her late forty's but her face had its fair share of wrinkles, and a sliver of a scar ran from the left side of her jaw and ended just under her ear. This woman had been through a lot in her life but she still remained kind hearted, it was one reason why Pain had picked her to take over Kaiya's training.

"I wish to make you a proposition."

"Oh of course lady angel." She remained compassionate with her words; in her line of work generosity was highly welcomed.

"I would like for you to take on a student. Anything you will need will be provided and if you accept my offer, you will be paid very well for your time." Konan's face was impassive the entire time she spoke. Not letting a single emotion show.

"Goodness, that is quite the proposition, isn't it. May I ask who I will be teaching?" she inquired, her brows slightly drawn in confusion. Why would lady angel want her of all people to train someone? Someone most probably important, it didn't make much sense but who was she to question god's will?

"You will know soon enough. I take it then you accept?"

"Yes my lady. I accept."

* * *

Forty minutes.

It had been forty minutes after the normal time mum usually came to get me for food. She didn't say anything either; even when I asked her direct questions. Nothing. And if that wasn't bad enough, she didn't stay with me. She just dropped me off at the kitchen and left again; like I didn't know how to get there on my own and needed her to once again show me the way.

Something was up. It was more than obvious, but I just couldn't for the life of me figure out what. Nothing had happened that I could think of to upset her. But then again I wasn't with her all day. I was most likely over thinking it, as I do a fair bit of the time.

'I'll just leave it for now. If something's bothering her and she wants me to know she'll tell me. I hope.'

* * *

So there you go. Hope you liked it and again R&R? I'll give you cookies!


	5. New Teacher

Sorry for the wait guys, I've been busy with having a life for once. aha no I've been working full days the past two weeks and just haven't had time to write, but chapter 5 is here! and chapter 6 is well on it's way to being finished as well.

also I got asked if kaiya and sasori will meet soon. YES! they will! aha but not quite yet. like i said in the first chapter this is mainly following kaiya and her growth as a person, not to mention i hate stories that seem rushed. so as a result i tend to make long introductions to mine. but yes if i follow the plan i wrote up they should meet in chapter 7/8. and something i forgot to say before is that sasori is human in this story, well he will be lol.

and just a quick shout out to my reviewers. YOU ROCK! xx

ok i'll shut up now and let you read the chapter.

New Teacher.

Early morning light slowly spread over my room waking me up from my sleep. It was about six, so I wasted no time getting up and getting ready for the day. Today I started my medical study and I defiantly didn't want to be late for that; not on my first day, so after having a quick shower and getting dressed I ran to the kitchen to have a bite to eat before I made my way to Pain's office.

Knocking on the door I waited for the reply that would allow me entrance into the room.

"Come in Kaiya." Came Pain's monotone voice that I was now accustomed to.

Walking up to his desk and standing there quietly, I saw that there was someone else in the room besides Pain and myself. They were hidden in the shadows so I couldn't tell much of anything about what they looked like except that they were fairly short and round.

"Kaiya I would like you to meet your new teacher, Integra. Integra this is my daughter, Kaiya."

The person came out of the shadows and bowed lowly in my direction before she spoke. "It is a pleasure to meet you lady Kaiya."

I was gobbed smacked to say the least. No one had ever bowed to me, or called me a lady for that matter. Out of pure habit I bowed back to her, and she seemed just as stunned as I felt not a few seconds before hand. "Nice to meet you as well Integra-sensei."

Integra-sensei was indeed short and round with kind dark eyes behind a small pair of round glasses, framed by greying mousey brown hair that was hiding a scar. She was wearing a medic apron over a simple everyday kimono.

Pain cleared his throat, gaining both our attentions immediately. "As I was saying before Integra, anything you need will be provided. We don't have much in the store room but anything there is now yours, Konan has already showed you the room I've had set aside for you two to work in. do you have any questions?"

"No, that should be enough for now. Thank you." She said with a kind smile.

"Very well then, you both may leave." Integra-sensei bowed to Pain and then turned to me. "Come on, let's get started."

I followed her to an empty room that looked like it hadn't been used in years, there was dust everywhere and had a few cobwebs in nooks and crannies, a fairly large table in the centre of the room, some cupboards along the walls with glass doors and underneath was a bench that stretched almost the whole way around the room. There was only one window in the room and that was at the back to the far right, covered only by a ratty, old curtain that had more holes in it then I could count. All I could say was this room needed some serious work.

"Alright. First lesson, A medic-nin always keeps a clean work place. That way there is less chance of infection and disease spreading. So your going to clean the room. I want it spotless by lunch time. That gives you five hours, plenty of time. I will be back then to check up on you." Integra-sensei ordered and left the room abruptly with out so much as a glance back.

The time I spent training with mum and Pain I quickly learned not to question my sensei, lest there be consequences, so I got to work cleaning up the filthy room. There wasn't much in it but it was big so I'd need all the time I could get to clear it out. I went down the hall to get some cleaning supplies and filled a bucket with warm soapy water and went back to my soon to be class room, muttering some colorful words the whole time, hey I said I didn't question it, not that I liked it.

* * *

"N-no! Wai..."

Sasori pulled his poison tipped tail out from the dead body that was laying in front of him. The rouges had been good, better then what either Sasori or Deidara had anticipated, it had taken them all night to finish the whole camp off.

"What are we doing now, yeah." Deidara turned away from the bloodied scene of dismembered corpses to address Sasori.

Looking up from his work Sasori walked off without a second glance at Deidara.

"Right, hmm." The blonde lifted up his hand and looked at his ring, channeling his chakra he notified their leader, asking him to open up the connection so they could speak.

"Have you finished the job?"

"Yes, hmm."

"Good. I want you both to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious near rain. I have been getting reports and I don't like it." With that the connection was released and Deidara had to run to catch up to Sasori again.

* * *

Four and a half hours of cleaning and I finally had the place spotless! Not a speck of dirt in the whole room. I rung the cloth in my hands out into the bucket of the now very cold water and started putting everything back before making my way over to the kitchen to make some food.

When I got to the kitchen I saw that mum was already there waiting for me with food on the table and that almost shy smile on her face. She really was very caring underneath her cold, unemotional mask. "Hey mum."

"How was your training this morning?" she asked in a voice that said 'i-dont-really-care-but-i'll-ask-anyway' though I knew better, it was just her way.

"So far all I've done is clean! I mean I get the whole having to keep a clean work place and all, but making me clean for four and a half hours just isn't fair." I grumbled around the spoon in my mouth. "I'm thirteen for crying out loud. I should be doing cool missions by now, earning money, meeting people! Instead I'm stuck here playing maid!"

Mum giggled slightly before replying to me. I was so taken aback by it I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn't just imagined it. "Kaiya you have to start slow, you have already surpassed most children your age and even some my age. Integra just wants to make sure that you know everything. She doesn't want to mess up your training, for fear of your father, our god. Just give her some time. You can learn a lot from her." Mum ended her little speech with a pointed look, making sure I understood what she was trying to say.

"Yeah I know. It's just annoying." I sighed and hung my head. We continued to eat in silence until Integra-sensei walked in.

"Good, your done. Hurry and finish eating, we're going to be starting your training in ten minutes." With that said she gave a slight bow to mum and walked off.

I sighed and laid my head on the table. "She better be as good as you both say mum."

She just smiled and continued to eat in silence while I grumbled to myself incoherently. I knew I was acting like a spoiled brat, but at the time I didn't really care.

After I'd finished eating I quickly made my way back to the 'Infirmary' to finally start my training, only when I walked in all I saw was a desk and a chair with the thickest book I had ever seen sitting on top of the table and Integra-sensei looking at me expectantly.

Taking a seat I waited for her to start explaining what we would be doing, and hoping to god that it wasn't reading that damn book in front of me in one day.

"The book before you is an extensive introduction to medicine, herbal remedies, proper care for wounds and medical procedures." She rattled on in a no-nonsense tone looking at me through her glasses. "By the end of your training with me I want you to have this book memorized word for word. You may read at your own pace but I will be periodically testing you on your knowledge so don't slack off or I'll know." Her stern voice travelled all through-out the room and all I felt I could do was nod my head.

"Good. Now, we can officially start."

I sighed inaudibly, this was going to be a long six months.

* * *

Three months. Three whole months! Although I have to admit that I did learn a lot from Integra-sensei in those three months and she did slightly soften up as we got to know each other more, she was still a hard ass that worked me into the ground everyday. You wouldn't think that medical training would be hard on the body would you? Well it was! I lost count how many times I passed out on my bedroom floor of chakra depletion after a session of trying to heal random animals of random illnesses, some of which I had never even heard of, let alone know how to heal.

And when she said she would 'periodically test me' gee she wasn't kidding. I was hardly keeping up with her pace. At first I thought I was way ahead of what she was expecting me to be up to, but man was I wrong. And some of the questions in her tests I swear aren't even in the damn book, but I would look afterwards and sure enough it would be there.

On top of all that I was still training with mum once a week. She said it's just so I don't get out of practise but with how hard she pushed me I highly doubt that to be the case, she'd been slowly making it harder and harder every week, almost like she was trying to see just how far she could push me before I broke. Apparently she didn't have to push very hard at all considering how after every around we went I would fall to the ground exhausted.

Despite all that, I was making progress with my medical training. Sometimes I would look over to Integra-sensei and almost swear she had a pleased look on her face, like she was proud to call me her student. It made me want to work even harder to please her. She was tough but she was good at what she did, and she knew it. She was the best in the village and she was my teacher.

We had just finished a particularly brutal session when Integra-sensei turned to me.

"I have some news for you Kaiya. Your father has decided to give you, your first mission. He wants to meet with you to go over the details and prepare you." She ended with a sad smile and walked out of the room, leaving me to make my way to Pain's office to hear about my mission.

* * *

"What do you thinks up with the leader lately, hmm?"

Sigh. Silence. Deidara could swear you'd be able to hear a pin drop.

"Well?"

"Deidara this isn't the time to be discussing this." Sasori growled out, rolling his eyes at his partners idiocy, not that Deidara would see it.

"Think about it Sasori-dana, he's been giving us mission after mission, like he's trying to keep us busy 24/7. but why hmm? We're already busy tracking down our bijuu. Why send us on so many random missions that any jounin could do? He's hiding something, but what?" Deidara rambled on mostly to himself since Sasori tuned out half way through his speech. "Sasori-dana?"

"Just let it go Deidara. Whatever his reasoning's are, they're none of our business. So drop it." With that Sasori walked off. Leaving Deidara to his own thoughts.

"HEY! Wait up."

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" I stood in front of Pain waiting for my orders. This was my first mission and I was a mess of nerves.

"Yes take a seat." He guested to the chair before his desk. "I have an assignment for you. It'll help you with your medical-ninjutsu training." He shifted some papers on his desk and handed me some. "Your mission is to infiltrate an abandoned hide-out of one of our ex members, Orochimaru. He has many scrolls on jutsu's from all around the world, even some that he himself has created. I want them. Anything medical will go to you, anything else you will hand into me, understood?" He sounded so stern and official, like the leader I knew him to be. But even still, for some reason I was never scared of him. Even though half, if not more, of the world wanted nothing more then to be as far away as they could be from him, I was never afraid.

"Understood." I nodded my head once and turned to the papers in my hand to have a quick look through.

"Good. You'll leave tomorrow morning. There is a map with the mission papers to help you find the hide-out. You may leave now."

With a bow I left to go back to my room to start preparing for tomorrow's mission. I didn't have many clothes so I just packed them all. I got all my weapons out of my top draw and placed most of them in my pack and left a few out to place around my body for fast access. I put the mission scroll on my bed side table ready for me to re-read it before I left tomorrow.

I didn't know how I was feeling about this. I was nerves, but excited as well in a way. What if I screwed it up? Or got myself killed? Or worse.

"No! Don't think like that Kaiya. You'll be fine."

I continued to chant that in my head for the rest of the night. All through out tea with mum I stayed silent, not looking up once. Once I'd finished eating I went straight back to my room to double check I had everything I would need. That night was mostly spent tossing and turning in bed, sick with worrying about the morning.

* * *

2:00 AM found Konan pacing the bedroom she shared with her lover, in nothing but her nightgown. She kept a brave face in front of Kaiya but the truth was she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. They had gotten word a while ago that Orochimaru had left this hide-out, it had been at least two months and there'd been no report saying that he'd gone back in that time. Konan knew that the chances of him returning so quickly was small, staying in one place to long would see his death, but no matter what she told herself she felt deep inside that Kaiya would be in danger if she went, especially going alone.

"Konan?"

She turned to see Nagato had woken up and was sitting up in bed watching her. "Yes?"

"It is 2 in the morning, are you having trouble sleeping?" His brow was wrinkled in concern, a side only she had the privileged to see now days. Since the death of Yahiko he slowly shut everyone else out. She hadn't seen him in years, he was a broken man, but she stayed by his side. She would always stay.

"Did I wake you up? I'm sorry." She took a deep breath and walked over to their bed, brushing a stray hair from his face, the movement an intimate show of affection that only happened when the two were alone. "Go back to sleep. I'm just going to get a glass of water and I'll be back." Konan walked out to do just as she said, hoping to calm her nerves down in the mean time.

* * *

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

"Nermph." Slowly opening my eyes, I turned to my side to see big red numbers telling me it was 5AM. Time to get up and get ready for my first mission. Getting up, I found, was a lot more difficult then I remembered. After five minutes of staling I finally got up and went to have a shower.

Feeling the water hit my face was the wake up call I needed. I quickly washed my hair and got out to get dressed.

The hide-out was about a day and a half run from here so I wanted to pack plenty of water to keep me going. Heading to the kitchen I realised that I wasn't going to be able to sleep much on this mission, being alone meant not having anyone to keep watch, so just in case I boiled the kettle and made some coffee to bring along, and to have one now with breakfast just for good measures. I looked over the paper one last time while I ate, making sure I knew everything.

It really was a simple mission when you thought about it, so I couldn't figure out why I was so scared to go. Since first coming here I hadn't really left the place. Once or twice with mum or Integra-sensei, but not on my own, and definitely not out of the village. This was completely new to me and I didn't know how to feel about it besides nervous.

Mum walked in and went straight to the cup of coffee I had made her. I knew she had been up late last night and would need the fix. She had stood outside my room for at least half an hour at about 3 in the morning, she never knocked or came in, just stood there. When I finally heard her leave I knew something was wrong, but I didn't bring it up.

"Good morning mum." I gave the best smile I could manage and went back to my papers.

"Good morning Kaiya. Did you sleep well last night?" Her question was more for common cutesy then anything else, just our morning ritual. When I looked up to answer I saw the dark bags under her eyes and just how pale her face really was. I wanted to say something but knew she wouldn't tell me she had a problem, she wasn't an open person, even to me, so I left it.

"Fine I guess." I again went back to reading my mission after I saw her nod.

An hour later saw me at the village gates with mum saying our goodbyes and with one last wave I started walking away, with hopes that I would return.

* * *

Ok, let's get one thing straight here. Sleeping on the ground SUCKS! Especially after running all day long, only taking a few five minute breaks to refill my water bottle or to catch my breath. I was beyond glad I thought to bring that coffee with me, I'd gotten maybe half an hour of sleep, I felt dead, but still I pushed on. I was almost at my destination so slowing down was not an option. Thankfully I hadn't run into any trouble on my way there so I had high hopes now that this would go off without a hitch.

Of course I had been wrong, very wrong.

* * *

Finally Sasori and Deidara made it back to rain and were making rounds to scope the place, making sure that there wasn't anyone lurking around that shouldn't be.

"There's definitely no one here on the east side. How about you?" The two had split up to search faster, Deidara taking the east and south of the village, and Sasori taking the north and west.

"No, nothing."

Deidara let out a long slow sigh. This was just another pointless, time-wasting 'mission' that their leader gave them and he still hadn't figured out what his reasons for doing this was. Although this was the first time they had been in the village in almost six months, it was still fishy. "I'm telling you leader's up to something."

"And I've already told you to drop it Deidara. It's none of our concern." Came Sasori's monotone reply.

"Fine." Deidara once again drop the topic and continued the task at hand.

* * *

Finally I'd made it to the entrance of the hide-out and I couldn't have been more excited to see a bolder in my life. I pressed my hands together and release the genjustu around the real opening to reveal a plain old boring wooden door. Not thinking much of it I lifted my hand to the knob and gave a quick turn to the left, only to realise a second later it was a trap. Moving faster then the eye could see, I only just managed to dodge the rain of kunai and shuriken, plucking one of the daggers from mid air I blocked the rest of the onslaught that I hadn't jumped far enough away from.

Taking a second to re-think my approach, I realised I hadn't taken the proper pre-cautions, I hadn't checked to see if it was safe to open the door. A rookie mistake that I shouldn't have made and was lucky to come out unscratched. I wouldn't make that same mistake again. Triple checking that it was safe to proceed I once again turned the door knob and took my first steps into enemy territory.

The place reeked of blood, the smell hit me as soon as I stepped through the door, I had heard of the things Orochimaru did. All the experiments he attempted, thoughts and theories he tested, and all with live human beings. Many didn't survive his investigations into just how far he could screw with someone's body until it broke under the pressure.

Pushing myself through the fumes I started randomly walking into rooms hoping to find what I was looking for soon, I had a bad feeling creeping up my spine, and all I wanted to do was get out of there.

After almost half an hour and 50 something rooms later I finally stumbled upon something. There were scrolls, books and papers spread all through-out what looked like a small study. Skimming some of the papers told me that these were in-fact some of his research and other bit and pieces of information, some from him, some from this guy named Kabuto and then some from ninjas and other scientist from all over the world. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Grabbing a scroll from my bag I did a jutsu that allowed me to place my findings inside the scroll, not only to make it easier to get them back the Pain, but also to keep them hidden. Sealing the scroll back up again I made to leave when something caught me eye. A ring.

Walking up to it I saw that it look a hell of a lot like mum and Pain's rings. A different colour and the character was different but it was deferentially like theirs. Maybe from the same set? Orochimaru was in the Akatsuki once wasn't he? I decided to take it with me. I was already stealing important documents, what was one ring in the scheme of things really?

Picking up the ring I once again made my way to the next room.

God did I hit the mother load with this one. The place was easily ten times bigger then the last one and was completely littered with his works. I couldn't believe my eyes. Did he really just leave it all behind? There had to be years of research in this one room, it didn't make since for him to just abandon it all like this. Something wasn't right here, I could feel it. Suddenly I remembered my bad feeling from earlier and now more then ever wanted to be out of this place.

As quickly as I could manage, I started grabbing all I could and inserting them into the scroll, trying to make as little sound as possible.

Fifteen minutes later I had everything packed up and I was on my way out when something flew by my ear and hit the wall beside me.

"Who are you? And what do you think your doing in lord Orochimaru's lab?"

Swallowing the lump in my throat I slowly looked up at the man across from me. His face was covered by a mask, the only thing you could make out about him were his eyes, but in the darkness of the hallway even they were hard to see.

None of this made any since. This hide-out was suppose to be abandon, so why was there years of study left here? Why wasn't everything covered in dust? And now that I thought about it why did the blood smell so fresh when it should have been months old?

"Tell me, how long has Orochimaru been gone from this place?" I demanded in the strongest voice I could muster.

"Why do you want to know kid?" He was looking down on me, heh perfect. I took a deep breath and gathered all the courage I could and turned the tables.

I lunged at him with a kunai in hand and went to swipe at his face. Caught off guard that a thirteen year old was attacking him his reaction was slow, but unfortunately not slow enough and what was suppose to be a deep gash across the eye, was little more then a scratch on the cheek. Charging him again I went to stab him in the chest only he moved to the left and I stumbled. He laughed at me as I fought to regain my footing.

He was to busy to notice my smirk. Next thing he knew was my kunai lodged in his rib cage, not far enough to course any real damage, but it was still painful as all hell. Gasping for pain he tried to move back but I only repositioned the small dagger so if he were to continue the action he'd have to risk breaking a rib in the process.

"AHH! What the hell?" The confused look on his face gave me a small feeling of victory and I had to force a straight face.

"I'll ask you one more time. How long has Orochimaru been gone?" I made sure not to let the fear I still felt show in my voice, only my strength.

"Like I'd tell you!" The man snarled back at me, venom coating his words, clearly in pain from my kunai that was still pushing into his chest.

I slightly twitched my hand and applied a tiny bit of pressure. "I'm sorry? Didn't quite hear you."

Gasping out his agony and a few curse words he gave in, chunin at best was my guess. "I don't know! I was sent out and when I got back they were all dead!"

"Sent out? Sent out where?"

"For supplies! I wasn't gone for more then five hours. When I got back though everyone had been killed, Orochimaru was gone, I swear!" He was near tears and I took pity on him.

Removing my kunai from his ribs I knocked him out and made for the door.


	6. Injuries, Discoveries And Conversations

hey guys. alright so first i wasn't going to post this chapter yet because i wanted a bit more time to get more done on chapter 7 but i got a review that i wanted to answer asap so lucky you! aha alright so they pretty much asked why Kaiya was so young since this is a Sasori love story. fair enough she is 13 and he's supposed to be 30 something. yes i know this BUT next chapter you should know why i've got her young (kinda probably just gave it away there) but there you have it. there's a reason and if you haven't been keeping up with the time line, it's almost her 14th which is how old i wanted her. if your still not happy with that answer then at the end of this chapter i've said why this is ok? read it if you want, or if you want to be semi surprised for when it happens well then dont read it.

And second i've gotten a bit lazy with the next chapter so i have absolutely no idea when it'll be up. hopefully soon-ish, but i cant promise anything, like i said before i'm working full time now. so again sorry for all the waiting you'll be doing but i wont forget about this story. IT WILL BE COMPLETED!

enjoy.

Injuries, discoveries and conversations with dad.

Deidara and Sasori had almost finished checking a three kilometre ratios around the village for the third time. Leader wanted them to make sure that there really wasn't anyone there that shouldn't be, so he had them do it everyday.

After this last day though they had a few days off to relax and do as they please, so when Deidara saw that the village gates were just coming into view he started rushing towards them when something caught his eye. About twenty meters to his left there was something on the ground, or someone.

Deidara changed his course to check out the scene. It was in fact a person. Someone incredibly beaten up and bloodied. Whoever it was they were unconscious. He bent down to have a closer look, turning them over he was shocked to say the least. Picking them up in his arms he quickly made his way to the infirmary in the Akatsuki 'HQ' for some reason hoping he could save the life in his arms.

* * *

"How do you think she's going? She's been gone awhile." Integra had been worrying for the past two days, Konan being the one having to calm her down, was fast approaching her tolerance level.

"She will be fine." Was Konan's sighed reply. She had, had enough."You don't need to worry. Pain and I trained her ourselves, and so did you. She knows all she needs to know."

"I know but it doesn't help knowing that she's still only thirteen. Not to mention it's her first mission. What if something's gone wrong?" The medic retaught as she started pacing the kitchen for the fourth time that hour alone.

The poor woman was freaking out but Konan had no idea what to do with her. She had her own concerns to deal with and little patience to be around others. She was about to try one last time to shut Integra up when she heard a loud bang.

Standing up from her chair she ran to see what was happening but Integra beat her to it and soon they were both in the improved infirmary watching as Deidara tried to bandage up all of Kaiya's wounds. Getting straight into medic mode Integra pushed Deidara out of the way and started trying to close her wounds the best the older woman could managed. Deidara and Konan stood back to give her some room, and Konan turned on the younger boy.

"What happened?" Too worried to really be angry she only slightly raised her voice at him.

"I don't know. I just found her like that about five kilometres from the front gates to the village." Deidara replied in a low voice. He still couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't believe that it was actually her. The girl from over six months ago. The girl he had kid napped from her room. The very one he thought he'd never see again, was laying on the medical table not three feet away from him. He just couldn't believe any of this.

Konan went to reply but Integra beat her to it. "Was she unconscious when you found her?"

"Yes." Deidara confirmed with a slight nod of his head.

"She's been badly beaten, probably only just got out of what ever it was alive. We're lucky you found her when you did, otherwi-"

Integra was cut off, everyone in the room looked down at the body on the table as Kaiya slowly started to open her eyes.

"Kaiya? Can you hear me?" Integra bent down and asked softly.

"Integra-sensei?" Kaiya's voice was incredibly weak, they all had to lean in to hear her.

"Yes it's me child. Can you sit up?" Kaiya tried to, she really did, but after only getting about four inches off the table she winced and fell back down with a grunt of pain.

"Nope. Guess not." Kaiya turned her head to the side and looked at Konan. "Hey." She said with the best smile she could manage at the time.

"Hey." Konan couldn't express how happy she was to see her little girl awake, she had to stop herself from walking up to her and giving her a hug from shear relief.

"I think it would be best if you two leave now. She needs some rest and I'm going to try to patch her up a bit more."

Nodding their heads the two left as asked, leaving the medic to do her job.

* * *

I looked straight at Integra-sensei, trying to figure out what exactly happened to put me in this state. It was all a blur, colours mixed, words mumbled, and everything seemed to replay in slow motion and fast forward all at the same time. Nothing was making much sense, and the harder I tried to concentrate the worse my head pounded.

"What happened to me?" My voice was horse and I ended my question with a coughing fit, hacking up a bit of blood in the process.

"I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me." She spoke softly as her hands slowly soothed away my aches and pains, I knew straight away that the extent of my wounds would make it incredibly hard to heal with chakra, and Integra-sensei was old, her control was starting to slip, soon she wouldn't be able to do any medical jutsu without completely exhausting herself. She never said anything about it though, but I was so sure that, that was the reason she took me on as a student.

"I'm sorry sensei, I really cant remember anything." I said, looking down at my hands.

"It's ok Kaiya. Just rest for now, you've earned it." She smiled, eyes and mouth crinkled at the corners.

I nodded my head and closed my eyes, almost hoping I wouldn't wake up again, that way I'd never have to deal with the reality of what I'd done.

* * *

"Nagato, Kaiya is back, but she is in the infirmary. Integra is tending to her as we speak." Konan reported, still worried but knowing now that Kaiya was very much alive and would be fine in a few days.

"Thank you Konan. Do you know what caused her injuries?" Nagato asked while casually shuffling through papers, trying to look uninterested in the matter.

"No, not yet."

"Find out. I want to make sure it wont be happening again any time soon." He put the papers down and waved his hand, indicating dismissal.

* * *

_Walking down a long, dark hallway, I started thinking about my mission, how did it go so wrong? I was almost finished, almost home._

_After I started thinking about it, it was like it was replaying in front of me. I could see everything that happened, the gates almost in view, the trees blowing around in the wind, the black figure creeping up behind me, the kunai in his hand. I could see us fighting, neither winning nor losing, just taking hit after painful hit. Soon it took a turn, like a tug-of-war, the rope being pulled harshly into one direction leaving the other side to fall in the mud._

_I could see the small dagger moving to it's target, my heart started racing, like I was there all over again, watching as the knife got closer and closer to it destination. Just as it was about to break skin another kunai came out of nowhere, knocking the first one away._

_The black figure sped away from the new enemy. Looking to my left I saw someone coming out from the shadows. It was him. The red haired man. He's was the one that saved me. As he always was._

"_You came." I smiled a bloodied smile as I tried to stand._

"_I'll always come for you." He wiped away the tears I didn't even know were there and picked me up, carrying me back home._

I woke up to the sound of thunder, seconds later there was a flash of lightning across the room and soon after another crack of thunder.

I looked around to see that I was still in the infirmary, alone. The clock on the wall in front of me said 8:30, so Integra-sensei was probably in her room reading by now. Which meant she felt I was healed enough to be left alone.

I got out of bed and I made my way back to my room to have a shower and get changed out of my bloodied clothes, they were now rags barely hanging on, I would have to throw them out later. When I got there I saw that my stuff was already back in my room including the scroll I'd put everything in. Quickly showering and getting dressed I decided to go up to the roof to watch the storm and clear my head of the events from only hours before.

As I expected it was still raining heavily when I got to the top and I was drenched in seconds but I wasn't complaining, maybe the water could wash away what had happened, or the thunder could drown out the screaming I could still hear clear as day, as if I was there again, or maybe I was still? Did I in fact ever leave that moment?

Shaking my head to rid myself of these thoughts, I quickly realised I wasn't alone up there. Pain?

"Is everything alright Kaiya?" He didn't turn to look at me, but I knew I had his undivided attention the moment I stepped outside.

"Yes. Every thing's fine." I said, trying to make it sound believable, but my voice gave me away.

"Very well." He wasn't convinced. "Have you done your mission report?" Pain wasn't the type to pry, for that I was thankful, but I also knew that if I did want to talk he would listen.

"I haven't written it down yet, no." I looked up to the sky, letting the rain fall onto my face, it made me feel so refreshed. Almost like brand new; almost.

"You can just tell me here, write a full one later when you feel ready." He said in his monotone voice.

"Ok, well everything went fine I guess. I only ran into one guy and I knocked him out quickly, and I managed to get lot of Orochimaru's research. That's it really." Taking a deep breath I finished my 'report'.

"Is that all?" Eye-brow raised with a look of skepticism, Pain watched me to see if I had left anything out.

"I think I might have found his old Akatsuki ring. No clue why he'd leave it there but-"

"Where is it?" He was suddenly very serious.

"Back in my room. Why?" Should I tell him that Orochimaru's hide-out wasn't as abandoned as they thought? That would be pretty relevant right?

"Nothing. Is there anything else?"

"Well, the guy I had to knocked out did say something." Taking his silence as my cue to continue I took another deep breath. "He said that Orochimaru left probably only a few hours before I got there."

"Is that so?" He was once again looking out over the village. Making sure nothing bad would harm what it's walls protected, as if hearing that Orochimaru was on the run again meant danger for his village. He really did care for it's people.

"C-can I ask you something?" I suddenly felt three feet tall. My voice was shaking, so were my hands, after saying that, I wished I had kept my mouth shut.

"Go on." Pains' way of saying 'of course' without sounding to eager.

"Ha-ave you ever," Feeling my throat close over, it got incredibly hard to breath let-alone speak. Forcing myself to calm down, I tried again. "Have you ever killed anyone?"

He seemed surprised by this, he wasn't the only one though. Why did I ask that? Of course he had! More times then I'd liked to think about. He was a ninja, and not only that but a criminal as well. To think that he hadn't would be laughable really. Through all my inner renting, somehow I still managed to hear him reply.

"Yes." Was his simple answer, but I should've known he wasn't one to beat around the bush, and I knew he wouldn't lie to comfort me. To tell the truth I'm glad he didn't.

"Does it ever get easy?" Hope blossomed in my eyes as I waited for him to respond.

"Easy? To take a human life is never easy for those who cherish it. To watch them take their last breath, see the light leaving their eyes, feel their heart make it's final beat? No it's never 'easy', but with time you learn to deal with it, to move on from it, and leave it in the past. Do you understand?" All through-out his speech he was never condescending, he spoke like I would understand him, not like I was some dumb kid. And as always he told me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted.

"But aren't ninjas supposed to shut off their emotions? Aren't we just tools to whoever is in charge? Does that mean that one day I wont feel anything? Nothing at all!? I don't want to be some emotionless drone! I can't live like that daddy! I just can't!" I had worked myself up so much that I didn't even realise what I'd said until it was to late to take it back. He looked just as stunned as I was, but recovered quickly.

"Ninjas are indeed weapons to use against his enemy, but no man can ever truly be emotionless, if he were then he would have no reason to fight. Emotions are where our straight and will to fight come from, to protect what we hold dear to us. A true ninja doesn't rid himself of his humanity, he just doesn't let it get in the way of the bigger picture, and he doesn't let his enemies use it against him." He looked please about something, but I couldn't quite pin-point what it was.

"B-bigger picture? That'd be the village right?" I tried to speak clearly but my voice was still breaking slightly and my face was still damp with the tear's of fear I'd shed moments before.

"It can be, but there are thing's bigger then just the village Kaiya, you must understand that."

"Bigger like what?" I tilled my head to the side in confusion. What could possibly be more important then your own home?

"That's for you to discover." He looked up to the sky as if looking for a response to some unspoken question. Obviously getting his answer he turned back to me. "You should head back inside, Konan has been waiting for you to wake up."

"Oh I probably should then. Thanks da- uh p- hmm," Smiling stupidly from embarrassment, I looked down at my feet. "Thanks."

* * *

I found mum and Integra-sensei in the kitchen drinking tea. They both looked up when I entered, all conversation paused while I found a chair and sat down.

"I'm glad your awake Kaiya. How are you feeling?" Integra-sensei wasted no time with pleasantries tonight, apparently my near death experience couldn't just be forgotten. Damn.

"I'm fine, really. Just a little tired I guess. But first things first, food." I said with a big smile on my face, and my stomach agreed with me, unfortunately it did so rather loudly. "Heh heh."

Going to the cupboard I pulled out a saucepan, which I filled with water and brought it to a boil, a bag of rice, a cup went straight into the soon to be hot water and a random source for flavour. While I waited for the water to finish boiling I pored myself a glass of milk and sat down.

"Are you going to tell us what happened?" Mum asked with a raised eyebrow.

I didn't really want to have to talk about I again, 'Once was more then enough with dad, I mean Pain, I mean, GAH. What the hell?' I never wanted to be legal more in my life then at that moment right there, I could've really done with a drink.

"Not much to tell. Got into a fight, it got messy. But here I am, good as new." Faking a smile I went to check on my rice. Turning the stove down to a simmer I autonomously stirred the rice while trying not the think about what happened.

"Really?" The disbelief that could come from just one word was amazing, also annoying. Mum and Integra-sensei were worried still and nothing I could say would change that.

"Really." I looked them both in the eyes. "I'm honestly okay. I'm here and I'm alive, so there's nothing to be concerned about." They didn't need to know the truth. Not yet.

"Do you think you can train tomorrow?" Mum asked softly.

"Ah yeah, should be able to." I gave her my first real smile for the night, glad she was trying to let it go.

After I finished eating I went back to my room to grab the scroll from my bag and started to sort everything into two groups, things to go to d-Pain, and things to stay with me. Turned out that a lot of it was medical, well over half in fact. And it was a wide range of jutsu as well, from small healing ones all the way up to life saving. There was this one that I kept going back to, called 'Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique'. It was, as the name suggested, a regeneration jutsu. It was by far the coolest one I'd ever come across.

After almost an hour of going through everything I had, I decided it was time for bed.

* * *

Konan had just finished her shower and was getting ready to go to sleep when Nagato came in.

"You seem happy. What happened?" Konan asked with a content smile on her pretty face.

"I had a talk with Kaiya." Nagato replied with the a look of pure love on his face. He was in fact very happy. He had the two people he cared for most in the world with him and his daughter seemed to be starting to except him. He had noticed that she was calling Konan 'mum' awhile ago, and then only hours earlier she had subconsciously called him dad. She was coming around. And he felt as if he were on top of the world at that moment.

"Oh? And how did that go?" Konan got into bed and waited for Nagato to do the same.

"It went," He gave a small smile, but the emotion that shined through was heart-warming. "it went well."

* * *

That next morning I got up like usual, did my normal routine, and went to meet Integra-sensei in the infirmary. I wanted to ask her all about that jutsu I read about last night while sorting through Orochimaru's stuff. It was just so fascinating, but I needed to know more about it, I wanted to learn it. 'Just think how many lives that jutsu could save!'

Off in my own little would I almost walked right past the door and into Integra-sensei.

"Bit distracted today?" She asked in a reprimanding manner.

"Oh, err. No I was just thinking about a new jutsu I wanted to learn, I was hoping you could maybe teach me." I smiled up at her with big puppy dog eyes, praying she would say yes.

"Maybe." She replied. "But only if we have the time."

My smile deflated slightly, but I was still happy none the less. She didn't say no. 'Fingers crossed we have the time.'

We had a normal day really, learnt about a few new natural healing remedies, and about a few medicinal herbs and plants. Practised my mystical palm technique for a few hours and then had a test at the end of the day. But all day, all I could think about was the jutsu I really wanted to be learning about, and every time I brought it up Integra-sensei would say 'maybe later'. Hmph. When would 'later' come?

Finally when I'd given up on the idea, she spoke. "You've done very well today. What was it you wanted to learn?" Her eyes softened while looking at me.

"It's the healing resuscitation regeneration jutsu. I found something on it when I was going through Orochimaru's stuff, and I really wanted to learn it." I smiled brightly up at her, hoping she would know it. And say yes.

"That's an incredibly complicated jutsu Kaiya. Even I probably couldn't do it, it's not the kind of thing you use for everyday scrapes and cuts." She said in a voice that screamed don't push. So I pushed.

"I know that sensei but if I did learn it just think what I could do? How many lives I could save!" I stated with hope in my eyes that she would change her mind.

"This jutsu needs at least four people to do it, and another four for back up when someone gets tired. One person cannot do this jutsu, let alone a child. Forget about that jutsu, it's almost pointless learning it when you have no one to help perform it." Having said that she left the room.

'Hmm if she wont teach me, I'll just have to teach myself. There has to be a book on it if its that powerful. I'll have a look in the library after tea.' With that thought in mind, I went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

As I thought there were a few books on this jutsu. Some explaining what it did and some how to do it, one was even about it's history. I figured the more I knew about it the better so I grabbed them all and went back to my room to start reading them. Since I had a test today it would be a good five days at least before she would give me another one. After the first month or so she started to let up on the almost daily tests she presented me. Now they were usually one a week, which was just fine by me, it gave me more time to read about what I really wanted to learn.

* * *

27 days. 27 days before I got found out. And man Integra-sensei wasn't happy when she caught me red handed messing around with my new favourite jutsu.

"I thought I told you it was to much for you to do? Why didn't you just listen? Now look at what happened! Your barely standing from chakra depletion!" She rented on for a good 20 minutes before I was aloud to try to defend myself.

"I know what you said sensei. But I've been working hard and I've read every book I can find on it. I've even been testing some theories and they've all had positive out-comes! I think I've figured out how to use less chakra and If I can just work on it a bit more I might be able to do this jutsu on my own! Just think how this could benefit every medic-nin alive, the whole world even!" I begged her to see reason. 'I'm on the verge of a major medical break through and she doesn't even care?!'

"And look where your 'testing' has gotten you. Your absolutely exhausted."

"Well maybe if you hadn't said no to me, I wouldn't of had to stay up late to read or tinker with it to get here. You could of even helped me figured things out just that little bit faster then on my own. But no it was 'to complicated'. I've had to do this all by myself because you refused to even consider teaching me!" Face red with anger, I huffed as I turned to the door and walked away to calm down. 'She just doesn't understand.' I thought sadly.

The next few weeks were tense between Integra-sensei and I. We only spoke to each other when we had to and when we weren't in class we'd out right avoid each other. But she no longer stopped me from continuing my experiments, which made things a lot easier on me, and I'd finally figured out how to do the jutsu on my own. At least I had in theory, I hadn't tried it yet in practice. I just needed something or someone big enough to try it.

That chance came the very next day.

* * *

_**if you do not want a spoiler for the next 2 chapters leave right now!**_

the reason Kaiya is so young is because i'm turning sasori human and when i do that i'm making him '15' again, sorta. so there will only be about a years difference in their ages not 20 years. ok? alright. xx


	7. Healing The Dead

I'M BACK! and with the chapter you all have been waiting for...kinda. dont really have much to say about it so i wont keep you waiting any longer. ENJOY!

* * *

Healing The Dead

* * *

"My training has been going well. Integra-sensei says that I've almost perfected my mystical palm jutsu and she's now letting me heal minor cuts at the hospital. I've been slowly learning how to make a chakra scalpel, although I'm still a bit shaky with that. And I can now recognize almost any medical plant or herb on sight and know how to affectively use it." I was almost finished my medical-ninjutsu training, and with that my first year here. Dad, yes dad, I'd given up trying to fight myself about that a week ago, wanted a report on my progress, and for some reason wanted to hear it from me instead of Integra, yeah we still weren't really on good terms yet.

I only had maybe just over a month to go, and I was now flying through my days. Each day getting me just that little bit closer to protecting the village I'd come to love so much. After my first and still only mission mum and dad started letting me leave the building, though almost every time I left, it was to go to the hospital with Integra-sensei for hands on real experience with human beings. What I left out of my report though was that I was still working on that jutsu I'd fallen in love with.

For over a month now any spare time I had went to that little project of mine. After Integra realised that no matter what she did or said I'd still find a way to work on it, she gave up trying to stop me, she even cut our days shorter sometimes so I could have just that little bit longer each day, and I had made so much progress in the last two weeks alone. I now fully understood every aspect of the jutsu and how it was supposed to work, and I could now change little things here and there to make it work the way I wanted it too.

I'd figured out how one person can do this jutsu, although it wouldn't be by myself like I had thought or hoped, I still wouldn't need three to five other people, just one more, and all they had to do was give me their chakra so I could last longer each session. The only way I could make this jutsu work while doing it myself was to break up the process, do a little each day until whoever is fully healed. But to do that I would have to cryogenically freeze them while I wasn't working to prevent the wound from killing them.

It was complicated and risky, but it could work. I just needed to prove it.

Dad looked like he was about to say something when he suddenly froze and then went deathly still. I'd seen this many times before, he was talking to one of the other members. Although I never knew what they talked about, you could sometimes see a look or two pass over his face, and today when it did I could tell he didn't like what the person had to say.

The connection broke and dad was back, looking at me with almost a sorrowful expression in his eyes.

"A member is almost dead. I need to gather the remaining members." He said as he stood to leave but I stopped him.

"A member died? How?" I questioned him. It always seemed like nothing could kill an Akatsuki member, even though I'd still only met Deidara that first day, from what I heard they just always seemed so invincible. And now one of them were dead?

"Deidara is on his way back to the village with Sasori's heart, he will be here in about five hours, If you want to know you can ask him yourself then." And then he left to contact the other members as he said he would.

'Deidara? He's coming back? Here? It's been almost a year.' I didn't know how to feel about that. I was nervous, though I wasn't sure why. I met the guy once nearly 12 months ago while he was kidnapping me. What did I have to be nervous about?

Wait. Did dad say Deidara was coming back with Sasori's...heart? What the hell was that about? I mean I had no delusions about what Akatsuki did. No matter what happened or how my feelings might have changed I still knew they were criminals, but taking your partners heart? And then bringing it back to your leader? That just went way over my head.

Five hours.

Five hours, and I would see the man that changed the course of my entire life. Yep. Still didn't know how to feel.

* * *

Konan was sitting on their bed, wasting time until 12:30 when she would cook lunch for Kaiya, when Nagato told her about Sasori.

"That is unfortunate." Konan stated with sad eyes but a blank face. "He was a great puppet master. This is a terrible loss for Akatsuki."

"Yes it is. Deidara is on his way back with Sasori's heart. There is a small chance that Integra may be able to do something, but never the less I'm calling all members back." Nagato bent his head down to silently mourn the loss of one of his own.

Konan said a prayer in her head for their fallen comrade, and then left Nagato alone, to give him space to work out what he needed to do.

Konan found Kaiya already in the kitchen waiting for her, a book in one hand, and a note pad on the table in front of her with a few dot points written down. She looked up when the door closed and gave an unsure smile. Konan sighed. Kaiya knew about Sasori.

"Hey."

"How did your report on your training go?" She didn't want sympathy or sad looks directed at her, she just wanted to eat and forget.

"It went well, I guess." Kaiya shrugged nonchalantly, getting the hint that her mother didn't want to talk about it.

Konan nodded and started to prepare their food. She was curious about what Kaiya was reading and writing about, had been for awhile, but she never asked. Kaiya obviously didn't want to hide it from her so she didn't mind not knowing yet.

Once their food was cooked Konan placed it on the table and they continued the small talk through-out their meal.

* * *

After lunch with mum I went back to my room to look over my notes again. I still had four hours until Deidara would be back and I had nothing else to do really since Integra was at the hospital, something about a newbie screwing up big time. Nothing she couldn't handle though, but because of that I had the day off.

So for the next four hours I worked on my jutsu in my room, waiting until Deidara got back.

* * *

Finally, he made it back in time. Sasori might have a chance to survive this. He hoped.

Wasting no time he walked straight to Pains office and knocked on the door. He waited. And waited. And waited some more. 'What the hell?'

Just as he was about to try knocking again the door opened.

* * *

It was time. He should be here any minute now. I got up from my bed, leaving my work there, and left to go look for dad, chances were that was where he would go first.

I was almost running to dads office, all the anxiety building up once again in the pit of my stomach. All the questions running through my head. It was enough to make me dizzy, so when I finally reached the door I had to stop for a few seconds to compose myself before I knocked.

He didn't answer though. So I tried again, but still I heard nothing.

I decided to just go in anyway, it wouldn't be the first time he'd fallen asleep at his desk after staying up late the previous night walking through papers or plotting out missions.

But when I walked in I saw that no one was there. I looked around the room but nothing. I turned to my right and walked to the door beside the book shelf that lead to a sort of storage room that dad likes to keep all of his important documents and things of that variety, but again he wasn't there.

'That's strange. He knows Deidara is on his way here. Where could he possibly be?'

I walked back out to dad's office when I heard knocking and my heart stopped dead in it's tracks.

I took a deep breath to try and calm my racing mind as I grabbed hold of the door handle and turned to the left.

"Kaiya?"

There he was. Standing right in front of me. The man who stole me away a year ago. He looked the same. Blonde hair in a high ponytail, bright baby blue eyes. He had his Akatsuki cloak on but most of the buttons undone. He had his fist raised like he was about to knock and he looked surprised.

Taking yet another deep breath I steadied my racing heart beat and tried to act cool.

"Hey." I gave a one handed wave and then leaned against the door frame with crossed arms, pretending to be uninterested and trying my hardest to hide my nervous shaking. "If your looking for Pain he's not in there."

"Do you know where he is yeah?" Deidara no longer looked stunned at seeing me but desperate to find my father.

"Walking up the hallway behind you." I said as I pointed my finger at dad who had almost made it to us and his office

"Good your here." he walked right past the both of us and went straight through the door and sat down.

I went in after him and stood before his desk waiting for Deidara to come in as well.

Deidara walked in a second later and started explaining everything, he didn't even care that I was right there as well."The mission was a success, Sasori took out their leader yeah. He killed him in the end, but he has almost depleted his chakra to nothing, hmm. I had to take his heart out, otherwise he would have died then and there, with the chakra he needed to control his puppet would have drained what little he has left, but without his body to hold his heart and chakra he cant seem to regenerate more yeah. He's slowly running out and anything I try to do seems to make things worse."

Dad took it all in and started working out a way to fix this, or tried to anyway. "This is not good. Integra is still out at the hospital. I don't believe the village has anyone else capable of doing anything. And even if we could call another village for help they wouldn't get here in time. This is quite the predicament." Dad sighed sadly, like he knew there was nothing he could do to save this member.

"Let me try." I spoke up for the first time since re-entering the room.

Deidara looked at me like I was crazy. "What? You? What could you possibly do yeah?"

"Yes Kaiya. What could you do?" Dad on the other hand look intrigued.

"This is perfect actually. I've been meaning to test the jutsu I've been working on and this is exactly what I need." I was smiling brightly. 'I can finally show Integra-sensei that it was worth all that time.'

"Lord Pain you cant be serious hmm?" Deidara looked gobsmacked. He just couldn't believe his leader was letting this girl try out some random jutsu on his partner.

"I'm am very serious." Dad gave Deidara a look, telling him to shut him mouth or else and then turned to me. "What do you need?"

"Mostly time and a lot of chakra. I'll have to do it in hour lots every day until he's better, the more chakra I have the longer I can go for, and the quicker he'll be up and dancing again."

"Very well. I have already called Kisame back, he should be here tomorrow, he'll have the chakra you need." He looked pleased at the out come of everything.

"Alright I'll try to do as much as I can today. Where is his heart?" I held out my hands fully expecting a human heart to be placed in them. Only it was a cylinder instead, one with veins? 'What the hell?' I looked up at the two man in the room, but when both of them didn't looked phased at all, I let it go for the time being. Walking out I went straight to the infirmary and got to work setting up my jutsu, the whole time constantly looking back to the heart, Sasori's heart.

I felt I pull towards it. I couldn't understand why but I felt a sort of connection to it. To him. But that's ridiculous right? I've never met the guy before in my life. 'Get it together Kaiya! Your being silly.' I berated myself and for the rest of the day I ignored the 'call' I felt.

* * *

Ten minutes after I started Deidara came in to check up on me. 'He must really care about his partner.'

"How are things going yeah? Are you almost finished?" He asked innocently. "Where is he hmm?" He looked all around the room trying in vain to find a fixed Sasori.

"Err Deidara? I've barely started healing him. It could take months before I'm finished, weren't you listening before?" I replied with a questioning look on my face.

"Oh." He said sadly and turned his eyes to the ground. "But this'll work right hmm? When your finished he'll be fine. Right?" He looked up hopefully.

"I cant be sure yet. This is the first time I've done this jutsu to this extent, to be honest, it the first time I've done it on a human." I answered with the truth, I wouldn't lie to him just so he'd feel better. He deserved to know the real chances Sasori had to survive.

"How is it done yeah?" He jumped up onto the counter top behind me and watched as I worked on his friend. "The jutsu I mean."

"Oh, well I made it from one that I found a while ago. It regenerates cells using apart of the body as a sort of medium I guess you could say. Right now I'm using Sasori's heart to remake all the cells he doesn't have, which is pretty much all of them really, and while I'm not healing him I'll put him into a cryo-genesis state so he wont die during the night. By the way, how is he alive right now without the rest of his body? You said something about a puppet and trying to put his heart back into his body? Just what is going on here?"

"You don't know hmm?" He seemed surprised.

I just shook my head no.

"Well Sasori is a puppet yeah." Deidara said with a shrug of his shoulders, as if it was common knowledge.

"A what?" My eyes were as wide as watermelons when he said this. "How is that possible?" I looked back at the heart on the table in front of me not know what was going on.

"I don't know. He never told me how he did it. He just did yeah." Another shrug like it was just excepted.

"Wait he did this to himself? Why?" this was just getting weirder by the second.

"Teh, he thinks it's 'art' hmm." Deidara crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at the heart.

"Art? He turned himself into a puppet! How is that art?" No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get my head around any of this.

"He doesn't know what true art is yeah." He said while puffing his chest out.

"Well after this he wont be a puppet any more." I told the blonde, going back to the subject of our conversation.

"What?"

"This jutsu is designed to recreate his human cell structure not wood. He'll be human again." I explained as if talking to a child.

"He's not going to be happy about that you know hmm." Deidara replied.

"Well to damn bad. I'm saving his life and if he isn't happy about that then not my problem." I snapped back at him.

He seemed to get I was annoyed so he left me in peace to continue working alone.

I stayed there, healing him, well into the night. When it hit 12 I finally stopped, I froze the heart, packed everything up and left to get something to eat before I went to bed.

That night I dreamt about him as I usually did, but that night was different, more real. Everything seemed brighter or maybe clearer, or something, like I was more connected to it somehow, and through the whole dream it felt like it was leading up to something, something big, something I didn't quite understand. Yet.

* * *

The next morning when I got up I rushed to get ready. I was finally testing my jutsu and I couldn't wait to get back in there. Yesterday went well to say the least, somehow the heart was still beating but only slightly, last night I got it beating at a normal rate again, not that it was really pumping any blood or anything, but still, it was progress.

When I got back to the infirmary I noticed straight away that I wasn't alone. I turned the light on to see...someone...blue? And hair that was spiked up? And when he looked at me and smiled the creepiest smile I'd ever seen, I saw a row of sharp teeth. 'what the hell?'

"You Kaiya?" The thing asked.

"Y-yes. Who's asking?" I said, trying to figure out what was going on. I'd never seen this guy before, but he was wearing an Akatsuki robe!

"Name's Kisame. Lord Pain said you needed my help." He stood up and walked over to me. I tensed up, subconsciously readying myself for an attack that never came. "Easy kid. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Okay, well if you here to help, you can get things ready for me while I take the heart out of it cryogenic state." I got into medic mode and went about unfreezing Sasori.

"Sure kid, what do you need?" He looked around a bit lost.

"Since we'll be going hopefully all day a chair would be good. And solider pills just in case either one of us get low on chakra. Oh and don't call me kid." I glared.

He did as told and grabbed the chairs and pills, he even got a bottle of water. By the time he'd gotten everything I'd prepared the heart for the massive healing session it was about to receive.

"Now we're ready to begin. I'll quickly run you through this. I'm trying to regenerate his cell structure and to do that I need to use his heart as a 'medium' of sorts. I tinkered with the original jutsu so it's a bit different. But I'm copying what you could call his DNA code. Everyone has a different 'code' and I'm using his to remake everything. As it is though this jutsu is tiring and I have to take breaks often because I run low on chakra, which is why your here. I'm borrowing your chakra so I can do more in sessions then I could on my own." Even though he listened to everything I said, he really didn't care about what we were doing or how we were doing it, he just wanted to get it over with.

When I realised that he wasn't going to reply, I started the jutsu. Slowly feeding from Kisames chakra, I worked it through my body, turned it into medical chakra and then pushed it out of my hands and into the heart. 'Wow this guy does have a lot of chakra. I really might be able to go all day!'

The whole time he just sat there quietly, not even caring that I was taking so much chakra from him. Before I knew it, it was lunch time.

"Alright we'll have a break for now to eat. Meet me back here in an hour, that should be enough time for you to recover at least a little of your chakra." I said as I stopped the flow of chakra and stood up.

Kisame just gave me a nod and walked out, leaving me alone to freeze the heart after that massive session. We'd been there since 7 so we'd been going for a good 5 hours and the heart was doing well, all the veins had grown longer, reaching for something that wasn't there yet. I pulled a sheet over the heart and left the room to get something to eat myself.

* * *

I spent most of the hour napping, trying to regain the chakra I lost that morning. When my alarm went off I jumped out of bed and wasted no time getting back to work.

Kisame was already there waiting for me. "Bit late aren't we kitten?" He, err, joked? I think. 'kitten? Really, that's what he's going to call me? Well I guess it's better then kid.'

"I took a nap." I replied shortly. This guy was getting on my nerves, but at least he stayed silent for the most part. "Alright are you ready?" I turned to the heart to start the process of unfreezing it.

"Yeah, I'm ready." He answered and sat down next to me, waiting for me to begin.

After a few week's we had most of the body remade, although he still didn't have any of his characteristics yet, still we were getting there slowly, which Kisame never let me forget. He was good in the morning but come lunch time he'd had enough and would complain until I gave up and called it quits for the day.

Well, okay he wasn't that bad, some days we even managed to hold actual conversations, Kisame was interesting to talk to, to say the least. He didn't say much about himself but he would tell me about missions he'd gone on with his partner, some were pretty nasty, other hilarious. This one time they were doing a simple theft mission to get some information and the whole time some little kid followed them and kept asking random questions that he refused to tell me.

* * *

One week later Sasori was breathing on his own and I no longer needed to freeze him, I put him on a drip to get his fluids up and by the end of the day he was looking good, his body was even starting to heal itself now which made the whole process go a lot faster, so when I pulled back the sheet that day I was speechless. I remember it so clearly.

I'd gotten up like any other day and went straight to the infirmary to start setting up while I waited for Kisame to wake up and get his ass ready. After getting my bottle of water out of the little mini fridge and washed my hands, I checked the drip and sat down and mentally prepared myself for another long day. I took one last deep breath and pulled the sheet down and froze.

It was him, the boy from my dreams! He was right there laying on my table completely unconscious. God his hair was even more intense then in my dream. 'I wonder if it's as soft as it looks.' My hand moved to brush his hair back when the door opened and Kisame walked in.

"Morning kitten, you ready?" He stopped just before Sasori and looked down. "Hey, he's looking good. We did good." He said with a big grin on his face.

"Err yeah, he is." I shook my head and sat down, pushing the thoughts back I got back into medic mode and checked everything.

"You alright? You look shocked."

"I'm fine." I didn't speak again for the rest of the day.

* * *

It took another week before I'd finally come to terms that Sasori was the boy I dreamt about almost every night. I spent most of my time imagining what he'd be like when he woke up. Would he be like he is in my dreams, sweet and caring with a playful nature? Or would he be more calm and collected with a gentle touch? Maybe even a bit of a bad boy?

Checking his vitals, it seemed he was finally all healed and keeping himself alive without help. I kept the drip in to give him the nutrition he needed, but that was all. He was breathing normally, heart beating at an even rate, all his organs working the way they should.

I refilled my water bottle from the tap and walked to the fridge.

"Mmm."

The bottle dropped.


	8. He's Awake

Hey guys! Chapter 8 is here! This is the official start of the story. Now just a little heads up about some things, Sasori at the start will seem a little ooc but once again I have my reasons! He'll be doing a lot of changing in this story so hopefully by the end of it he wont seem ooc any more he'll just have grown into a different person. Also Tobi is just Tobi. Not anyone else. If your keeping up with the manga you'll know what I mean. So yeah don't worry about cute little adorable Tobi turning evil! Aha. And I'm really sorry at how long the chapters are taking to come out now! But with my limited time to write and the fact I'm so fussy with my writing and then trying to keep my chapters semi long, it takes time! I promise you that I will finish this story no matter what so please keep reading! But I can only go so fast while keeping the story good. If I keep to my plan there'll be about 18 chapters so we're almost half way! Aha

* * *

He's Awake.

Nagato sat in his office with Konan by his side, he needed to figure out what he was going to do with Kaiya. Today marked the final day of her training, she would now be a member of Akatsuki, only problem was, was that he had no one to pair her up with. He didn't want her left alone, but he certainly didn't want any of his members hurting her either, which meant kakuzu was well out of the question, and Itachi was already with Kisame, Zetsu best worked alone and Deidara was now paired with Tobi.

"I just don't know who to put her with." Nagato rubbed his tired eyes in frustration. "I cant bring someone new in for her, I wont know if I could trust them with her safety."

"She has made great progress with Sasori, why not pair them up if she succeeds in healing him? Deidara already has a new partner so when Sasori wakes up he wont have one either. He wouldn't do anything to harm her too seriously, and besides Kaiya can handle herself, you don't need to worry about her so much." Konan gave a loving smile and grabbed her partners hand in her own, giving him a slight squeeze.

"I'll always worry about her Konan, she is my daughter." Nagato squeezed back and got up from their bed, walking to go see his little girl.

* * *

I stood still, white as a ghost. He was awake and sitting up. 'I did it? I actually did it? I brought him back!' He looked around the room and saw me watching him and wide shocked eyes. He made to stand up and I rushed to push him back down.

"No, you're still weak." I said with worry showing in my voice. 'His body may be reconstructed but that doesn't mean he still has the strength he had before.' Try as I might, even weakened, he was still stronger then I was, and when he stood I realised he was also very naked.

I turned a bright red and closed my eyes. 'oh god. I forgot about that.'

"What did you do to me?" His voice filled my ears, as I watched him try to keep himself upright, if it wasn't for the fact he sounded furious I would have thought I'd heard an angel.

"What do you mean, what did I do? I saved your ass." Cute as he was, no one spoke to me like that.

"Saved? You ruined my art! Do you know how long it's going to take me to fix this mess you've made?" He turned on me not caring that he was still naked.

"Don't you dare! I worked for weeks on you to heal you! If you waste all that time I spent, I'll kill you myself." I little more then whispered the last part, to show I had even intention of going through with my threat.

"Kid I could snap your neck before you had a chance to blink." Sasori growled as he glared at me, thoroughly pissed off.

"Puh-"

"I see your awake Sasori."

I looked up to see dad standing in the door way watching us argue. I huffed and bent down to pick up my forgotten water bottle.

"Sasori-dana! Your awa- whoa!" Deidara came in and froze when he saw that Sasori had no clothes on. Closing his eyes he turned away.

"Shut up brat." The still recovering ninja said as he grabbed at his head in slight pain.

"Lets leave him alone for now, Deidara, give him time to get dressed." Dad stood aside and let Deidara through then turned back to me. "Kaiya I want to see you in my office when your finished up here." I nodded my head and went back to cleaning up, completely ignoring Sasori. 'I don't care how cute he is, he's an ass.' He was nothing like I thought he'd be, in fact he was down right rude and ungrateful.

The bone head left the room some how gracefully, not caring that he was naked, and allowed me to think alone.

"Heh he's not that cute anyway." I said as I swept the floor.

* * *

Sasori walked straight to the room he used when staying at the hide-out to get something to wear. Going through his draws, he quickly realised that he didn't have much.

"Damn girl, ruined everything." He said as he threw a cloak over his shoulder still looking for suitable clothes. "I spent years perfecting my jutsu and turning myself into my art and all for what? To be turned back human again!" With a defeated sigh he finally picked out a simple black shirt and matching pants. Just as he finished pulling his top down, he felt something. Something he hadn't felt in almost 18 years. His stomach rumbled and growled. Damn he was hungry!

Sasori made a bee line to the kitchen to grab something to eat, but when he looked in the cupboard he realised he had no idea how to cook, well anything. He picked out a packet of ramen and looked at the instructions. 'Hmm seems pretty straight forward.' Getting everything he needed he tried to make some food. He really did try.

Not ten minutes later though and he gave up, he'd burnt the noodles, spilt over half of the broth on the floor, and almost set his hair on fire! Sasori decided that a simple sandwich would be easier, faster and not to mention safer.

He sat down and started ripping into the bread, barely remembering to breath as he swallowed bite after bite of the first food he'd eating in almost 20 years.

"Slow down Sasori-dana. You'll make yourself sick yeah." Deidara said from behind the red head.

"Brat I'll eat however fast I want to." Sasori replied around his mouth full of food, stuffing even more in.

"Fine, hmm. Just don't say I didn't warn you, yeah." Deidara shrugged and walked to the fridge to get something to eat.

Finally finished his sandwich Sasori got up and washed everything he'd used, and the floor. He headed for the door to go back to his room when Konan came in.

"Pain would like to see you both in his office immediately."

The two nodded their heads and went to find out what was going on.

* * *

I stood in front of my father as he told me what would happen now that I'd finish my training. "Now that your training is finished your officially in Akatsuki. You will be sent on missions with a partner like anyone else and you get to have this back." He said as he tossed me something.

Catching it effortlessly I peaked at the small object in my hands. "Orochimaru's ring?" I looked at the ring in awe, it really was official now. I was in Akatsuki.

"Yes, you found it on your first mission, it only seems right that you have it now." Dad stood up and walked over to stand in front of me. "I ha-" Knock knock. "Come in."

And who just so happened to walk in? Why the two people I didn't want to see of course! Deidara and Sasori. 'Oh great.' I silently sighed.

"Ahh perfect timing. I was just about to tell Kaiya who her partner is." I stood up straighter, ready to find who I would be working with from now on, but something suddenly didn't seem right. 'perfect timing? Oh no don't tell me-'

"Kaiya, your partner will be Sasori." Dad said looking almost proud of himself as he said the one thing I was dreading.

"WHAT?" Both myself and Sasori screamed at the same time. Dad raised an eyebrow while Deidara looked at Sasori like he'd grown a second head or something. Me? Oh I just glared at both my father and new partner.

"Sasori-dana?" The blonde asked shocked. Sasori just ignored him and glared back at me, the two of us pretty much ignoring everything else in the room.

"Needless of your feelings toward each other, I have made my decision. The two of you will be partners, and Sasori, you will keep Kaiya as safe as possible." Dad said and the two idiots looked quite confused.

"I don't need to be kept safe I can handle myself." I groaned under my breath.

"You may be strong Kaiya but there will always be someone out there stronger." Dad reproved.

"Dad you don't have to be so protective." I sighed quietly, but regretted what I said almost instantly.

"DAD? What is going on here, yeah?" Deidara shouted, poor guy was really getting confused now, so for the next half an hour dad explained that I was his and mum's daughter, while I sat back and just listened, adding little comments every now and then, but mostly I just thought.

I was partnered up with Sasori? I could already tell that wasn't going to end well. He pretty much hated me for making him human again, and now we were stuck together! Damn. Why couldn't I have someone else? Anyone else but him. I mean wasn't Sasori Deidara's partner? Why would he change that? They seemed to work well together if what Deidara told me was anything to go on, so why break them up? This wasn't going to be fun, but what could I do? Dad was the leader and his word was law. I was just going to have to suck it up and try to make the most of it, somehow.

"Wow, I didn't even know you and Konan were a thing, yeah." Deidara oh so politely stated, still looking stunned.

Dad didn't look to pleased with how Deidara spoke about his and mums relationship but he left it alone and moved on. "Kaiya I want you to do a complete physical on Sasori and deem if he is fit to go on missions yet." Dad said looking straight at me, ignoring the blonde, hoping he'd shut up before he got knocked out.

"Alright." I complied, I just wanted to get this over with, fighting it would just make things worse.

"You may leave." He spoke softly and waved us all out so he could get back to his paper work.

We all walked out, but by the time I had the door closed Sasori was already half way down the hallway.

"Sasori wait up!" I yelled as I ran after the red headed boy.

"Go away brat!" Sasori growled not even looking back.

"Sasori, dad said I had to check you over!" I tried again to stop him but he just kept walking.

"So? I'm perfectly fine thanks to you." He said with sarcasm dripping from every word. "Now leave me alone!" The boy screamed at me and slammed his door shut in my face.

"Jerk!" I kicked the door for good measures and sat down on the floor with crossed arms, waiting for said jerk to come out and listen to reason.

After waiting for half an hour though, I finally gave up and left, he wasn't coming out until I was gone so I figured it was best to leave him alone to relax for a while and get used to being human again, maybe then he'd listen to reason. I went back to my room and decided a nap was a heavenly idea. I got into bed and closed my eyes, waiting to go to the land of dreams, and for once hoping I didn't dream of him.

* * *

Deidara was in his room minding his own business when his loud and annoying partner literally fell through the door. "DEIDARA-SENPAI! THERE IS A GIRL SITTING OUT SIDE OF SASORI-SAMA'S ROOM!"

"Tobi, shut up!" The blonde said as he rubbed his temples. "It was probably just Kaiya, yeah."

"Whose Kaiya? Is she a new member?" Tobi asked with such innocents, you would have never thought he was really a member.

"Yes she is, hmm." Deidara sighed with a far away look.

"Oooh, she's really pretty Deidara-senpai." The masked man exclaimed rather loudly while jumping up and down like the lunatic Deidara knew him to be.

"Hmm." He choose to ignore his partner on that one. "What do you want Tobi?"

"Oh yeah! We have a new mission Deidara-senpai!" Tobi stated once again loudly while waving his arms around, looking like a small child in a candy shop.

"New mission, hmm?" That got his attention. A mission meant he could get out of the hide-out for a while. "When do we leave, yeah?"

"ASAP." With that said Tobi left to get himself ready.

Deidara slowly stood up and packed his stuff. It had been about a month since he'd brought Sasori's heart back, this would only be about the third mission he'd had since then. And they were all quick and easy, completed in a few days, but Deidara wanted a big one now. He and Kaiya were no longer on the best of terms and she could be scary when she got pissed. He gave a slight shudder and shook his head.

He left his room with a bag over his shoulder and made his way to Pains office. When he got there Tobi was already waiting for him.

"Ready partner?" Tobi gleefully shouted already knocking on the leaders door.

"Come in."

"You have a mission for us, lord Pain?" Deidara stepped forward ready to receive his orders.

"Yes. I want you two to go under cover as travellers in a small town near leaf. I want information on Orochimaru and rumor is he was spotted there in the last few days. Find out what you can and report back to me your findings. That is all."

* * *

_I was walking through a beautiful forest, with glowing flowers and fire-flies circling all around, when he found me. At first I felt how I always did when he was close by, happy, safe, excited, but then memories from the real world came creeping in and I suddenly didn't want him anywhere near me. Running away from where I knew him to be, I desperately tried to find a way out of the mess of trees, but I only seemed to be finding dead ends. _

"_Why are you running Kaiya?" He was right behind me. _

_I turned around to confront him, but the look on his face broke my reserve. He looked so confused and hurt, like I just spat in his face. I could almost see his heart breaking inside his chest as he waited for me to respond. This wasn't the same boy that was in the real world. This boy was so sweet and caring and modest and-_

"_Not real"_

"_Kaiya?" He asked stepping a little closer._

"_You're not real. You never were. You were always just a dream and I stupidly believed that the real Sasori would be like you. God I'm an idiot." I said it as if it mattered now, while holding back tears. "I live in the real world, where nothings easy and simple. How could I have been so silly as to think a guy I dreamt up could ever be real?" _

_He walked up to me, softly lifted my head up and looked me dead in the eyes. "I'm real now, while you dream, I seem real-" He took my hand in his and gave me a light squeeze. "Don't I?"_

_I gave a little sniff. "Yes."_

"_Then why not pretend I am? Just for now, while you sleep. Be happy, with me, in here." His words were so sweet and loving, no one could have said no. I slowly nodded my head as he pulled my away from my fears and back into the forest where I was finally able to let go of everything, even if only while I slept._

* * *

I woke up to a gentle knocking on my bedroom door. I got up and stumbled over to see who was it was.

"Mum?" I said sleepily as I rubbed my eyes.

"Can I come in?" She asked in her soft voice.

"Yeah sure." I stepped aside to let her in and watched as she went and sat down on my bed, waiting for me to join her. "What's up?"

I closed the door behind me and I walked over to my mother. As I sat down next to her she handed me something. A long but small black box. "Open it." She said with one of her small but beautiful smiles.

Doing as told, I opened the box. I gasped. Inside was an amazingly gorgeous choker, black velvet with a shuriken charm hanging from the middle, it was sterling silver? Or was it white gold? Either way I shuddered to know the price of such a beautiful necklace. "It's from your father and myself. Turn it over." On the other side of the shuriken was an inscription. '~Our Light~' I was speechless. "Happy birthday Kaiya." Mum placed a hand on my back to show her affection.

"I almost forgot it was my birthday today." I looked up at her with tears in my eyes and a big watery smile. "Thank you. Its beautiful."

Mum took the choker from the box in my hands and motioned for my to turn around so she could put it on. "On my 12th birthday my mother and father gave me one very similar to this, a week before they were killed." Mum looked down sadly, remembering her parents, quickly looked back up and smiled. "It looks wonderful on you."

I smiled back still holding back tears.

"Have you checked over Sasori yet?"

"No. He wouldn't let me." I replied in a dead tone. "He's being stubborn." I stated with crossed arms.

"I'll talk to him. The two of you have a mission tomorrow so he doesn't have a choice in the matter." Mum said as she stood up and left me alone.

I looked at the clock beside my bed to see it was almost 12:30. I got up from my bed and slowly walked to the kitchen, intent on getting something to eat. When I got to the kitchen I saw Sasori sitting at the table trying in vein to err roll sushi? I think.

"Do you need a hand?" I asked in what I hoped was a nice manner.

"Not from you." He snapped back.

"Well good. It's not like I'd help you anyway, since you obviously cant appreciate it." I retorted and turned my back on him to make my own food.

I heard the red head sigh quietly, but he didn't say anything else. Ignoring him I cut up some chicken while I waited for the water to boil for the rice. Chicken cut, I lightly marinaded it in honey soy, as I started the rice.

"Mum said we have a mission tomorrow." I said airily as I stirred the rice. "And she also said that I was the one to say whether or not your fit to go."

"Then I wont go." Sasori replied in less then a heart beat, still trying to roll his sushi.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" I asked under my breath. Lunch cooked I threw everything into a bowl and sat down at the table as well.

"Why do you have to be so irritating?" He growled, glaring at me.

"I'm just trying to do my job." I was seriously getting pissed off by then but no he kept going.

"Your 'job' ruined my art!"

"My 'job' saved your life!"

"ENOUGH!" We both looked to the door to see my father standing there looking pretty damn annoyed. "Sasori, Kaiya will look over you to make sure you are suitable to go tomorrow, if she says you can then you will. And Kaiya you will give me your results by 6 tonight understand?"

Not wanting to anger him more then we already had, we simply nodded our heads and went back to our food. After eating the two of us went back to the infirmary so I could finally run my tests to make sure he was fine.

"Alright this might sting a little." I said softly as I pushed the needle through the delicate skin in the bend of his elbow, drawing bottle after bottle of blood. "Sasori don't stop breathing. It's just a needle." I rolled my eyes. He was being a baby.

"Are you finished yet brat?" He said through clenched teeth.

"Almost, one more to go, Annnd done." I pulled the needle out and patched up the tiny wound. "Now while I run these, I want you to run that." I pointed to a small treadmill in the corner. "Lets see how long you can last." I grinned when I saw his face slightly drop, but he got on the treadmill none the less. A few minutes past in silence when Sasori of all people broke it.

"Hey brat?"

"My name isn't 'brat' it's Kaiya." I replied half heartedly, still going through all the tests on his blood.

"Fine Kaiya then." I couldn't see it but I was sure he rolled his eyes.

"Yes Sasori?" I said still only half listening.

"Why-" He broke off, not knowing how to continue. He stopped running as he thought of a way to ask his question. "Why am I 15 again?"

I stopped working and turned to looked at him. "You weren't 15 before?"

"No I was not." He looked away from me and sat down.

"Well it's pretty simple really. I used your heart's cells to recreate your body." I shrugged it off like a 5 year old should have known it. "You were 15 when you changed right?" He gave a hesitant nod. "Well there you go. You got rid of everything but your heart. That also included all your hormones. No hormones, no aging. You never aged past 15 Sasori." I spoke as if I really were speaking to a 5 year old.

He never replied to that. Just got back on the treadmill and continued running like I told him, and I went back to his blood. Three hours later all the tests were done and he was fine and more than happy to leave. I stayed back to write up my report so dad could have it on file, but I also wanted some time alone to think.

That was the first time all day that Sasori and I had managed to have an actual conversation without either of us yelling, and he was the one who spoke first. Maybe he was coming around? 'Nar who am I kidding? He's still pissed at me. It's not something he'd get over in half a day.' I sighed. 'Why was he so upset that I saved him? I could have just as easily let him die.' Another sigh. I looked down to realise I'd stopped writing a while ago. I shook my head of my thoughts and went back to my report. There wasn't much I could do about it so no point in worrying any more.

* * *

Six that night I was back in dads office, telling him the results like he asked. "His blood count is is normal, brain activities are looking good. His immune system looks to be working fine, and he's regaining his strength rapidly, though he seems to be handling it just fine so I'm not worried. He could go on this mission given that it isn't too strenuous." I paused for a moment. "It isn't right?"

"No. The two of you will be fine." Dad assured me.

I nodded my head but I still voiced concerns. "I would have liked to keep him here for a few more days at least though. He hasn't even been awake for 24 hours dad. Do you really think he should going on missions? Even easy ones?" Even though the guy annoyed me like crazy, he was still my patient, and I still worried about his well being.

"I have faith in the both of you." He waved my said concerns aside.

"Was there anything else?" I asked, hoping to leave soon, early as it was, I just wanted to go to bed and maybe read a book.

"That was all. You may go." I gave a nod and walked towards the door, when dads voiced stopped me."Oh and happy birthday Kaiya." I looked back to see, for the first time since I'd been there, a genuine smile on his face.

Smiling back, I bowed my head slightly. "Thank you."


	9. Coming Home

FINALLY! this was by far the hardest chapter yet to write, but I did :D And I hope you love it! now it was pointed out to me that some of you didn't like the AN updates I did for the last two chapters so for now on if you want to know anything, give me some idea's for the story or just want to make sure I'm still writing just send me a pm I love to hear what you think, also reviews are muchly loved hehe.

Also if you noticed I changed the rating down from M to T for certain reasons but I may bump it back up if I feel I need to.

Once again thanks guys for sticking with me and the story and i love you all!

* * *

Coming Home.

It was still dark out, when Sasori and I left to go on our first mission, well my first official mission as a certified Akatsuki member. It was pretty basic, someone was rumored to be selling information on Akatsuki and dad wanted them gone at all cost. Dad said they were last seen in a small town about a day away from the fire rain border. We had no idea what he looked like, how he got the information in the first place, or who he was selling it to, we knew nothing. Sigh. We'd been walking for a good hour by now and neither of us had said a word since we left dads office, which both of us were completely fine with.

Another few hours past when I called for a break. We refilled our water bottles and sat down for awhile, the trip was already taking it's toll on Sasori and I didn't need him collapsing on me though he refused any help I tried to give, he wouldn't even let me look him over to make sure his body was still healing properly.

"We still have just over half a day to go until we get to this little town. Do we even have a plan to find out who is selling this information? Or better yet do we even know _if_ someone's selling information?" I asked, irritated at the lack of info we had ourselves. The red head just ignored me though. Never even hinted that he heard me. 'Bastard.'

Ten minutes past and we got back up to continue our trip, we jumped up to the trees to save some time and get to the little village sooner. The sun had come up about an hour and a half ago and with the light it made it easier to navigate our path.

"Hey Sasori?" I asked, my voice cutting through the deathly silence.

"What?"

"We're going to have to kill this guy aren't we." I never looked at him as I spoke, just kept my face forward.

Sasori didn't answer straight away. I saw his look of confusion out of the corner of my eye. "Yes." He replied albeit cautiously, unable to figure out where I was going with my question.

"Oh." I looked down slightly to stare at my feet as I jumped from branch to branch. He didn't say anything else after that, which I didn't complain about, and all was silent again for the rest of the trip.

Night come quickly and we made camp close to the small town to rest before we completed our mission the next day. I laid down on my fold up futon and waited for sleep to take me, Sasori was taking the first watch so I had four hours to sleep.

* * *

Sasori watched the young girl as she slowly fell asleep. 'How did she do it? This kid remade my human body without any flaw.' It confused Sasori to no end. How in the world could she do it? It should have been near impossible, but here he sat for the world to see, no longer made of wood but of soft skin once again. He could feel the air fill his lungs as he breathed, feel the dirt beneath his hands, and still he had trouble wrapping his head around it. This girl was interesting to be sure, he would have to keep an eye on her, but as she slept she looked innocent, fragile, as if one touch and she would crumble away to nothing. He just didn't get it.

He turned his head away from the girl and ignored her for the rest of his watch.

* * *

I woke up to my name being called. "Hmm Sasori?" I rubbed the sleep from my eye as I slowly sat up. "Is it my turn?"

Sasori just nodded then went and sat down at the base of a near by tree and closed his eyes. I double checked the traps we had set up when we got there and when satisfied that they were still intact I sat back down in my futon and pulled out a book I'd brought with me, still listening to the silent night for any noise that indicated that we had unwanted guests lurking around. After maybe half an hour I looked up to check on Sasori only to notice that despite his eyes being closed and his breathing even, he was in fact still awake.

"Can't sleep?" I asked quietly so as not to disturb the silence around us.

"Hn." He turned his head away from me, eye's still closed.

I walked over to him and kneeled down to become almost eye level. Being a medic-nin I was naturally sensitive to chakra and getting up closer to the boy in question I could feel his chakra going hay-wire in his brain. "Damn, Sasori have you even rested properly since you woke up in the infirmary?"

"What does it matter if I have or haven't?" Sasori sighed finally looking at me.

"It matters if your not sleeping Sasori. How are you suppose to regain used chakra? How is your body meant to recover from everyday stresses? If you get sick, your body does most of it's healing while asleep. You need that resting time Sasori, everyone does. So yeah I'd say it matters." I said as if speaking to a child, which I guess in a way I was. I placed a hand on his forehead and concentrated.

"What are you doing?" He growled but he didn't move to stop me either.

"Shutting your brain down as if you were falling asleep." I replied casually, as if I were speaking about the weather.

"I'm fine. Remove your hand now!" He was getting pissed off, but I could tell it was working because he was now struggling to keep he's eyes open.

"Oh hush, some sleep will do you good. Maybe when you wake up you wont be so much of an ass." I smiled at the look he pulled when I said this.

"Don't count on it brat." Once the words left his mouth he was out.

Standing back up I brushed imaginary dust off my hands and walked back over to my book and continued reading until the sun came up. It troubled me though, why wasn't he sleeping? Did I mess up somewhere when I brought him back? No I double checked everything, he was perfectly healthy. So why? I would have to look into it when we got back.

By the time Sasori woke up I had almost everything packed and all the traps taken down. "Morning." I greeted brightly as I stuffed my book back into the scroll I used to keep everything I needed for our mission. He of course just ignored me and got himself ready for the day ahead. After erasing any evidence that we had been there we set off for the town once again.

* * *

When we finally found the place where this guy was supposedly last seen we split up to search the area faster. We weren't searching for long when we found the guy we were looking for. He was staying in a little run down hotel on the top floor and was having what appeared to be a meeting of some kind. We were hiding up in the ceiling, looking down at our target through various holes in the wood.

"As you can see I have what I promised you, but the price just went up." A man, with broad shoulders and short jet black hair that was slicked back, chuckled loudly as if to say he had all the power in the room. He was wrong. Very wrong.

"What! We agreed on a set price two months ago." Another man, much shorter than the first and in a business suit, shouted outraged. This guy looked like someone from a big important company, high in power too, but he was easily intimidated, recently promoted?

"Yes but that was before I almost got myself killed getting what you wanted. The price has gone up, if you don't want to pay the excess for the information then I'll just sell it to someone else who will." The first guy said with a sly grin leaning back in his seat with his hands behind his head.

"No, no, I can pay you! Just give me err, an hour. I'll have the money."

After listening to the two men talk about their business, Sasori turned to me. "Go outside and keep an eye on things. Make sure no one tries to come in." He ordered quietly and pulled out a scroll with the kanji for 'three' on it. 'I wonder what's in there.'

I gave a nod to show I understood. "What will you do?" I didn't need to ask to know the answer.

"I'm going to deal with him." And with that said Sasori moved away from me and soon I lost him in the darkness. I sighed and made my way to do as I was told.

Waiting out front of the tiny hotel I kept watch while Sasori finished the job. I tried to stay still so as not to draw attention to myself for looking suspicious, but it was hard when I knew what was going on in the building behind me. There was no sound, no desperate cries for help, no screams of agony, nothing. But I had no doubt in my mind that when Sasori walked out, the two men in the room would be dead. This small village was peaceful, very few shinobi came through here and so the people here usually weren't affected by the on going wars between the five great nations and the few organisations big enough to be a threat like Akatsuki.

It was quiet and friendly. Smiles on most peoples faces as they walked down the street or helping others, it reminded me of my old life in a way. Children walked to school for a day filled with learning, or adults off to work to earn money. I smiled sadly, remembering my old life before Akatsuki. I was happy back then, but I wouldn't change how things turned out. Sure my life was a lot more dangerous now but I knew my birth parents, I had a life full of adventure, I saved another life from death.

I turned around when I heard movement behind me and saw Sasori walk out.

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by dad's voice in my head. "Are the two of you finished?"

"Perfect timing, I just finished. Everyone is dead." Sasori answered first.

"Good. Before you return there's something I want you to check on. Another small town, not to far from where you are now, Kaiya you know the one. Stay the night and come back tomorrow." With that dad cut the connection off.

Sasori looked at me waiting for an explanation that I didn't give, I just ran off, leaving him behind as I rushed to the small town dad spoke about, a massive smile on my face.

* * *

Nagato cut the connection and looked up at Konan. "They will be back later tomorrow."

The woman nodded and moved closer to her lover. "Are you sure about this? You're not worried she'll change her mind and wont come back?"

"She will. And if she doesn't Sasori is there to bring her back. But most of all I trust her." He said, trying with all his might to believe what he just said was true.

* * *

I walked into the village and looked up in awe at everything. It had taken us five hours of non-stop running at full speed but we were here. I was here. My home. Or old home I guess, since I didn't live here anymore. Nothing had changed in the year I was gone, but I didn't care, I was actually glad in a way that everything was the same. That way I knew exactly how to get to where I was hoping to go before we left. My parents house.

Sasori was right behind me, clueless as to why we were even here. 'I should probably tell him...nah!' I giggled slightly at the guarded look on his face. He had no idea.

"What is so funny?" He asked after five minutes of giggles from me.

"Nothing haha, don't worry." I smiled up at him when I heard my name.

"Kaiya? Is that really you?" I turned around and my smile brightened even more.

"Isaikei!" I ran over to the boy who had called my name and gave him a suffocating hug.

Isaikei was my best friend, we'd known each other since we were kids. He'd been there through everything and he was the person I missed the most. We had been inseparable. I just couldn't believe I was back, even if it was only for a day. I was home!

"Where have you been? It's been a whole year Kaiya! I've been worried sick about you!" The boy in my arms lectured me squeezing me even tighter.

"I'm sorry Isai, I didn't mean to make you worry."

"It's okay, as long as your okay nothing else matters." He said as we finally pulled apart.

"Oh sorry Isaikei this is Sasori. Sasori this is my best friend since forever, Isaikei." I introduced the two as they watched each other suspiciously.

The two nodded at each other and looked back toward me. "Kai have you seen your parents yet?"

"No, not yet I only just got back into town. I was planning on going there now actually, you wanna come with?" I looked at Isaikei, still smiling, and waited for his answer.

"Err sure, I haven't got anything better to do." He said with a hand on my head messing up my hair.

I glared at him but left it at that, as we all started to the house I grew up in. The whole time we were walking Isaikei and I chatted about what had happened in the village while I was gone. The few times he brought up what I'd been doing I side stepped the question and asked him more random stuff to keep his mind off me. Sasori walked behind us, taking in the sights around him and listening to mine and Isaikei's conversation.

"Kaiya, someone is following us." Sasori whispered next to me.

"Don't worry about it." I turned to him and looked just over his shoulder. "It's just Konorabu, he's harmless." I turned back around and continued to walk next to the two boys.

"Hmm." Sasori wouldn't say it but I knew he wanted to know the story, although how he knew there was a story to begin with had me clueless.

"He's Kai's ex-boyfriend. They broke up about two or three weeks before she left." Isaikei explained, leaving little detail out. "He's still obsessed with you, you know."

I groaned in frustration and hung my head. "Really? It's been a year! You would think he would have found someone, _anyone_, else by now." I sighed, slowly shaking my head.

"Nope, guy's still hung up on you Kai." I looked at Isaikei to see him poking his tongue out childishly at me. I rolled my eyes and copied his immature gesture.

When we finally got to my parents house I stopped. What would they say when they saw me? It had been a whole year as Isaikei put it. Would they be glad to know I was still alive? Or would they hate me? I had lost all my nerve, I wanted to turn back, I wasn't ready to see them, but I never got the chance to run and hide for my so called best friend had already knocked on the door.

"I bet they cant wait to see you Kai." He had a big grin on his face that I now wanted to slap.

"K-Kaiya?" I looked up to see my mum. She too was just how I remembered. I wanted to go up and hug her and run for the hills and cry, all at the same time. But again before I could decide on what I as going to do the choice was taken from me as mum came up and gave me a hug that put the earlier one between me and Isaikei to shame. "I was so worried about you! You never wrote or came back, I didn't know if you were alive or dead or what had happened to you!" she all but screamed in my ear. When she pulled back I could see the tears in her eyes.

"I'm okay mum. I promise." I tried to smile but it came out looking more like a grimace. "Where's dad?

"He's gone out for awhile, but he'll be back later tonight. He'll be so happy to see you!" Mum said as she pulled me in for another hug. "You are staying for dinner right?"

"Of course mum! I was actually hoping that maybe me and my friend could stay the night if that's alright?"

"Friend?" Mum looked over my shoulder and finally noticed Sasori standing there. "Oh hello." She again let me go and walked over to the red head. "I'm Kaiya's mother, Katie."

"Sasori." Sasori said as he shook her hand softly with a nod of his head.

"Well, why don't we all go inside and relax."

* * *

Nagato walked lazily to the kitchen, all the while thinking about his daughter. She would be in the village by now, probably already visiting Katie and Enarkai. He hoped she liked his little graduation gift, though he was worried that she might not come back, but that was why Sasori was with her. He trusted Kaiya, no doubt about that, but she also loved her old life. It wasn't hard to see. He wanted to give her the chance to see how much she had grown, and let her have some time with her old friends and family. He may never say it out loud, but he loved his little girl, more than anything, and above all else wanted her to be happy, and he knew Konan did too.

Speaking of Konan she was already in the kitchen making herself something to eat. Nagato walked up behind her and gave her a soft hug from behind. "Hello."

"Hello to you to." Konan smiled and leaned into his arms. "Have you heard from Kaiya yet?"

"No, not yet." He replied as he breathed in her intoxicating scent.

"You're still worried aren't you?" The woman he held turned to look in his eyes.

"I am..._concerned_, yes." Letting her go, he took a step back and leaned against the table behind him. "But I do trust her enough to know that she will make the right decision in the end."

"Try to give her some space to be herself. If we smother her, she may fight back." Konan ran her hand up Nagato's arm in comfort.

"Hmm, you're right."

* * *

We were all sitting in the living room waiting for tea to be cooked, talking and laughing, and somewhere along the line mum got out the baby photos to show Sasori, which was making him very uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Oh and this is her when she had a piece of her first birthday cake, the look on her face was priceless!" She held the photo up to Sasori's face and looked to me. "You know since your here for the night why don't I make you a birthday cake, it was you birthday just a few days ago correct?"

"Yep, 14 now." I gave mum a big goofy grin when we all heard the front door open and then close again.

"Katie? I'm home."

"Dear, we have some guests." She stood up and walked over to dad to bring him in to see me, and in those seconds she was gone I started to sweat again.

"Oh?" Dad walked in and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Kaiya's back!" Mum said rather loudly while Isaikei patted my back with a big smile of his own.

"Well," He started, clearing his throat and fixing his shirt. "It's great to see you again sweetheart." And once again I was wrapped up in arms that squeezed the life out of me.

We finally sat down for dinner and made small talk, Isaikei still didn't know about the whole Akatsuki thing so that topic was avoided, and surprisingly Sasori wasn't being a total douche bag either. He was actually being polite and joining in with the conversation. Somehow we got onto art and it just fired him up more and there was no stopping him and Isaikei, one side loving art that passed the test of time and the other just liking 'pretty colours'. I, myself thought it best to stay out of the soon to be argument, so I busied myself with collecting the dishes and helping mum wash up.

"So Kaiya, tell me how your 'studies' are going?" Mum asked discretely.

"Great actually. I just finished my first real mission today and I've completed my year of training and I'm getting really good at the medical nin-jutsu! That boy with me, Sasori, I saved his life! Can you believe it?" I was so happy that I almost didn't see how sad she was to hear how happy _I_ was.

"That's great honey. I'm proud of you." She smiled through her unshed tears.

"Mum? Are you okay?" I stepped closer to her and put a hand on her arm.

"I'm fine sweetie. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself so much." She wiped the water from her eyes and plastered a small smile on her face to show she wasn't lying.

"Hmm, I am. I was a little skeptical at first but mum and dad really are great people once you get to know them, but I'm sure you know that since you were all friends once, right?" Finished with the dishes, I went to the fridge to get the cake mum had made before dinner and started cutting slices for everyone.

"Yes, we were." She put everything away while I grabbed out more plates and put a piece of chocolatey goodness on each one with a dab of cream next to them. "So that boy is your partner?" Mum asked with a knowing smirk.

"Ew mum, no way. Don't even go there. He's a total ass!" I made a face at her and crossed my arms to make my point.

"He seems nice to me." She grabbed two plates and started for the dining room where the boys were still in their heated 'discussion'. "And he's real handsome too!" She winked at me and walked off before I could reply.

"Hmph!"

* * *

"Thanks for having me over for dinner, and it was great seeing you again Kai." Isaikei said as he gave me one last hug before he left. "Don't forget to say goodbye this time okay?" With a wave of his hand he left and we all went back inside. I got myself a glass of water before joining them all in the lounge room.

"So how are Nagato and Konan? It's been years since we've seen each other." Dad smiled and sat down on the couch next to his wife.

"Good I guess. They're very serious most of the time but not cold, if you know what I mean." I sat down as well on the single seat across from the couch and put my drink down on the mahogany coffee table between us. "I think they're happy I'm there, or at least I hope so." I gave a shy smile and looked down at my feet.

"I'm sure they are honey. Anyone would be lucky to have you in their lives." Mum said as she looked at Sasori, who had sat down on the other seat next to mine, and smiled, to which he gave a confused look with an eyebrow slightly raised in question. Ignoring him she went on. "We miss having you around ourselves."

"Well now that I'm not training all the time I might be able to drop in more often." I stated hopefully. I really did miss them like crazy. It would be amazing if I could come see them more now.

"Yes, that would be nice." Dad said and looked to the clock on the wall behind me. "Good lord, how did it get so late?" We all turned to the clock ourselves to see it was almost 11:30.

"Dear, don't you have to be up early tomorrow?" Mum turned to face him, concern showing on her face when he confirmed he did. "Kaiya you can sleep in your old room and Sasori you can have the guest room, I'll go get that ready for you, when your ready Kaiya can show you where it is." They both stood up and mum left to do just as she said, but dad stayed a moment longer.

I walked up to the man I'd known as my father for almost my whole life and gave him a hug goodnight and let him go to bed. It would be hard to leave tomorrow, that was for sure, but I had to. I didn't have a choice even if I wanted to stay. The Akatsuki was my home now, not here. And besides if I tried to stay dad would just order Sasori to drag me out by my hair anyway, so there was no point in even trying.

Speaking of Sasori. "Did you want to go to sleep? We've had a big day." I stood up and turned to the red head waiting for him to answer. Getting up himself he just gave a nod of his head and waited for me to lead the way.

We walked in silence, not that either of us minded since we didn't really have anything to talk about. I'd forgotten just how small this house was, but after spending a year in the AHQ anything would be small I guess. When we made it to the room I opened the door and showed him inside.

"There are some spare clothes in the cupboard over there if you wanted to change, and two doors down on the other side is the bathroom. My room is next door," I pointed to my left. "So if you need anything else just come and get me." I explained and wasn't surprised that he didn't say anything. "Good night Sasori." I spoke softly.

"Hmm."

Shaking my head with a tiny smile on my face I left him alone and went to my own room right next door. 'Damn you mum. I knew you were up to something.' I sighed quietly to myself as I changed into a pair of sleeping shorts and a tank top, and laid down to go to sleep myself. As I slowly drifted off I stared outside the window next to my old bed and just watched the moon. Something was happening, I wasn't quite sure what yet, but something was definitely happening.


	10. Good-byes And Interrogations

Good-byes And Interrogations

* * *

The next morning I woke up before the sun rose, after a year it had become second nature to be up that early. I laid in bed for another ten minutes, today I had to leave to go back to AHQ. I rolled over and looked out the window, the birds were awake as well and singing their songs. You couldn't hear the small winged animals inside the hideout, so it was nice just listening to them.

Finally I got up and had a quick shower to wash the dirt and sweat away from the day before. While I was washing my hair I thought about what happened last night. What was with mum? She never acted like that before, it was almost like she thought Sasori and I were...together? No way! That can't be it. Like I would ever go out with that jerk! What was she thinking. I mean sure he's not that bad looking, but come on, ew. I mean he was a, well, a jerk!

I got out of the shower and got dressed, grumbling to myself about how mum must have gone insane while I was away, when I heard movement somewhere in the house. I pick up my daggers and slowly made my way to the sound. Quietly walking through the house I heard it again, coming from the kitchen. I hid behind the door frame and peeked inside.

"Dad? What are you doing?"

"Huh? Oh good morning honey. Your up early." Dad turned around to looked a me while he tried to cook his breakfast. Bacon and eggs by the smell, and smoke. Putting my daggers into their holder at my hips I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand. Dad grew up cooking with his mum, ask him to make a five course meal that you would get at a very expensive restaurant and he'd do it without blinking, ask him to make bacon and eggs, well he could very well set the house on fire.

"Yeah. Kind of a habit now I guess," I walked over to the stove to see how bad the damage was. "Where are you going so early?" I asked as I took over cooking. It was savable, but only just.

"I'm meeting with someone." He gave a slight smile and sat down to wait for his food.

I flipped the bacon over and turned back around to face him. "A meeting? For what?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

Dad looked around, like he was making sure no one was listening. When he felt it was safe he looked back at me and leaned in close. "It's for mine and Katie's anniversary. I'm buying a vacation house!" He whispered, rather loudly, in excitement.

I smiled fondly and went back to the food, I turned the heat off and put everything onto the plate dad had already gotten out for himself and sat down next to him. "That's so sweet dad."

"Yeah, but you can't tell her. It's a surprise." Dad was stuffing the food down his mouth, trying to eat as fast as humanly possible without choking. "She thinks I'm seeing off an old friend that is also leaving today, which I will, just after I've finalised the deal." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up.

"Will I get to see you before I leave?" I stood as well, moving to give dad a hug, I held back tears when I felt, more then saw, him shake his head no.

"I'm sorry Kaiya, probably not." He said softly as I pulled back. "But I'm glad I got to see you now." He had a smile on his face now, though I could see he was also holding back tears just like I was. "You're all grown up now. Not my little girl any more." Dad learned down to my level and looked me straight in the eyes. "Just promise me you wont forget about us."

My eyes started burning with fresh tears. How could he even think I would forget about them. They were the only family I knew, up until last year. How _could_ I forget them. Blood or not, they were my parents. I wrapped my arms around my dad and squeezed as hard as I could. "I'll never forget you."

Once dad was finally out the door I started making breakfast for everyone else. It was quiet in the house still since no one else was awake and most of the village was only just waking for the day ahead. I hummed to myself softly as I cooked. I decided on steamed rice, miso soup, and tamagoyaki, it was filling and with the long trip home, Sasori and I could use with a descent meal before we left.

I looked out the window as I waited for the rice to finish cooking, it was almost eight by now and kids were slowly making there way to school for a day filled with learning and playing, adults off to work to earn money. I smiled to myself at the simplicity of it all. What would life be like if I never found out who I really was? I was pulled out of my thoughts as the water started to boil over. Quickly turning the heat off I rinsed the rice off under the tap and started serving the food onto plates.

Turning around to place everything on the kitchen table I very nearly jumped out of my skin. "Sasori!" I said in a higher pitch then I'd have liked. I put the plate down and then placed my hand over my still racing heart. "You scared me."

"My apologies." He mocked with a well hidden smirk. He sat down and waited for me to serve him, his food. Was he...teasing me?

Soon after that, mum walked through the door as well and greeted me in a more gentler way then my partner had, I don't think my poor heart could take another scare that morning, so the soft kiss to the cheek was appreciated.

"Thank you for breakfast Kaiya. It was great as always." Mum praised while wiping her mouth and getting up to clear the table.

"You're welcome mum. It's the least I can do." I smiled up at her as she leaned over me to get my dishes. "Besides, we have to leave today to go back to AHQ to give our mission report, so this'll be the best we'll eat for maybe two days."

"Oh no. Not on my watch you wont. Your taking some food with you missy." Mum ordered in her concerned parent voice.

Again I smiled and gave a slight nod of my head. "Okay."

Finally, after what seemed like hours had passed, we were walking out of the village. I turned around for one last look at my old home and waved mum goodbye. Turning back around I looked over to Sasori. He looked a lot better then just a few days ago. That was a good sign. I gave a small sigh and pushed forward too try and get home as soon as possible, all I wanted was to crawl into my warm bed and sleep for a week.

* * *

Pain stood before two men with their heads bowed down, and hands tied behind their backs. The self pro-claimed god watched them as they shook from terror, knowing just who held them captive.

One of the two bravely pulled his head up to look the leader in the eyes. "Why are we still here? We've told you everything we know!" He cried out, with tears, of pain and fright, slipping down his bloodied face.

With a look of disinterest, Pain calmly turned away. "Your usefulness has not run out just yet."

* * *

Konan sat on the window seal behind Nagato's desk in his office, waiting for his return. Kaiya was suppose to be coming back today and although she would never show it, she missed her daughter, and was excited for her to be home again.

Just then her love walked in and went straight to his chair and sat down, turning to Konan and waited patiently for her to explain what she needed. "She will be back today correct?" The origami user asked airily, while looking out the window. The dark clouds covering the sky, and the rain pounding to the ground, drenching anything not under shelter. It was a sad but beautiful sight to behold.

"Yes." Nagato closed his tired eyes and just for a moment, where they were, it was peaceful. They stayed like that, listening to the rain and thunder, together, for what seemed to them, an eternity, waiting for Kaiya to come back to them.

* * *

We walked at a slow lazy pace through the trees, neither of us in much of a rush, and the scenery was so tranquil and serene. I breathed in the fresh air and soaked in the warn sun, living in the rain village that was always cold and wet, I was very much enjoying the soft heat.

I glanced side ways to Sasori to check how he was doing, and saw the most peaceful look on his face. In the short time I'd known him he'd never looked that calm, just walking there beside me. I gave a small smile and closed my eyes, drew in another refreshing breath and let it out slowly.

"You seem rather happy." Sasori spoke, breaking the quiet atmosphere around us, and turned to give me a questioning stare.

Looking back at him, I grinned. "I am happy."

Shaking his head, he focused his eyes back onto the path ahead, but not before I caught the beginnings of a smile of his own.

It wasn't long after that we finally made it back to AHQ and was walking down the halls to get to dad's office.

"Enter."

We both walked in and stood before dad's desk, waiting for him to finish what he was doing and give us his full attention.

I looked just behind dad and saw mum sitting down by the window looking outside, absent-mindedly making another one of her paper creations. The small amount of light streaming in from the glass, brightened her features and made her look like the angel the village believed her to be.

"You have both returned I see, good. How did your mission go?" Dad asked, jumping straight to the point as always. He interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on them, waiting patiently for our report.

"It went well. There were no complications to speak of. All were an easy kill. Whatever that man knew, he had kept it to himself." Sasori said, clear and also to the point. He stood straight and looked dead into dad's eyes, without blinking once. It was all highly professional. It made me feel like a complete amateur.

Dad turned his gaze to me waiting for me to give my part of our report. Clearing my throat I tried to mimic Sasori. "I was out side keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Everything went smoothly."

I took the slight nod of his head as a sign he was happy with what we told him and let out the breath I didn't know I was holding in.

"Good. Before you both leave I have one more thing for you to do."

* * *

I silently followed Sasori down a dark hallway I'd never seen before. I didn't even know it was there until today. There was hardly any light, just a few lamps every so often to fight away complete the pitch black. We walk passed door after door, all wooden with brass knobs.

After some time Sasori finally stopped in front of one. Although nothing outwardly look different from all the others, he knew which one he was looking for.

"Sasori, how often do Akatsuki interrogate people?"

He stepped before the door and went to open it, but stop short and turned to me. "Enough to have an interrogation room." Sasori smirked, and then continued into the room.

I walked in after him and moved to the corner next to the door. Looking around the small cell, because that's all I could call it really, I saw a table in the middle and two men hand cuffed to it, badly beaten with blood running down both their faces. There were no windows, plain walls painted a dull cream colour and a concrete floor.

"So, he's sent a couple of kids to finish us off huh?" One of the men, possibly the elder of the two, said with a weak smile. "Does he think that little of us?"

"Quite." Sasori's voice was quick and harsh, almost like a wipe in the form of words.

The redhead circled the table, sizing up the men in front of us. They seemed to be nothing special, just normal ordinary civilians. The man that spoke before looked like he was in his early 30's while the other looked to be mid 20's. Neither had any weapons or shinobi gear that I could see. They defiantly weren't ninja. What could dad possibly want from them?

Sasori took out some papers from his robe. 'When did he get them?' He leafed though them, pausing every so often to read something, and finally handed all but the last page to me.

"You can take care of them." He passed me and walked back to the door.

"What? Why do I have to do it?" I asked, rather annoyed by his tone. 'I've never interrogated anyone before in my life! Only read about it in books. What could Sasori be thinking?'

"I have things to do." He replied simply and walked off with an air of arrogance.

"Hmph! Fine." I sulked while looking through the pages myself.

After a few minutes I was completely caught up on what the two men had been questioned on, and it now all made sense. They were in league with the man Sasori killed just a few days ago for collecting information on Akatsuki. So that's why dad choose us.

I look to the two men and thought. I had read a lot about interrogating. It was an interest of mine, so I'd taken many books from the library to study. I knew how the human mind worked, not just from the books but also from my time with Integra-sensei. I knew how to cause pain with minimum damage to the body. And I knew what a person in their position would want to hear to spill all I wanted to know. I could do this! …..I hope.

* * *

Two tall figures clad in the Akatsuki cloak walked casually toward the rain village's gates, their faces hidden by straw hats.

"I wonder why leader has called us back so suddenly." The taller of the duo stated to his partner, with no expectations of a response.

"Hmm." Was all he got back.

The first just smirked back and continued forward. A few hours previous, they had been contacted by the god of the rain village telling them to return as soon as possible with no reason given.

"WHY THE FUCK DID HE MAKE US FUCKING COME BACK! I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO FUCKING SACRIFICE THAT BITCH BACK THERE!"

Both gave a sigh. "Looks like Hidan's back as well." The shorter person said, already exhausted by the upcoming presence.

"Hey look Kakuzu! It's Itachi and Kisame!" Said a white hair, pink eyed man, Hidan. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

Kisame and Itachi both stopped walking and waited for the two, to catch up. "Heh. We got called back just like you. Though I don't know why." Kisame grinned, showing rows of sharp teeth. "Either of you wouldn't know anything would you?"

"How the fuck should I know?" Hidan gave a lazy yawn, looking almost cat like. "Guy was as cryptic as ever. Heh."

"Yeah sounds about right." The blue man agreed, smile still stretching his face with mirth.

The four men once again began walking to the gate of the village.

* * *

Once Sasori was out the door he sat down in front of it and waited, listening to what was happening inside. 'Hmm, wonder how'll she'll go.' Sasori thought as he leaned back into the wall, re-reading the page he didn't give to Kaiya.

It was quiet for some time, while Sasori guessed she was reading the pages he gave her.

After a few minutes, if it were possible the room behind him grew even more silent. It lasted about 2 minutes, then...

"AHHHH!"

Cries of pure fear and pain echoed through the near-black halls.

"Heh. So she does know what she's doing after all." Sasori smirked in the darkness. "Interesting."

* * *

Wiping my hands of imaginary dust and walked around the table much in the same way Sasori had done before he left.

"So, you two ready to talk yet?" I sent them both a wicked smile to show I had no problem with hurting them again, although it was a lie. I didn't like hurting them, not while they were tied up and defenceless like that, but first rule of being a ninja, never show your weaknesses under any circumstances.

"We already told you! We told your leader all we know!" The younger, less experienced man screamed in fright. "Please just let us go." He was almost in tears.

"No. you may have told our leader all you know, but now you're going to tell me." I leaned back against the wall, next to the door, and crossed my arms, waiting for one of the two, to just give up and tell me what I wanted to know. It would make things so much easier for them. Hmph!

"We don't even know much! Our leader didn't speak much about what he did. We were only bodyguards really." The younger one again the first to speak.

"How much did he find out?" I asked, my calm expression threatening to flutter.

"I don't know."

"How did he find it out?"

"I don't know."

"Who did he go through?" I pushed out through gritted teeth.

"I err, don't know that either." The younger of the two finally gave up and hung his head.

I sighed in defeat. I wasn't getting anywhere with this. "Well what do you know?"

"Like I said, he nev-" Then it was as if a lightening bolt had struck his face, he brightened up, head held high and looking like he was conflicted about what he wanted to say.

The older man, who hadn't said much at all since I'd walked in, looked at him and knew instantly what his friend was thinking. They knew more then they'd first realised, and now weren't sure if it would be wise to tell me. "What is it?" I pushed forward and placed my hands on the table, leaning down close to the men, silently waiting for them to finally give me what I wanted.

"We know who wanted the information."

* * *

Kisame and Itachi walked out of Pains' office and went straight to the kitchen for food. "Wonder why he wants us to stay here for so long." Pain had just told them both that from no on until told otherwise they'll be staying at the Ame hide-out whenever they have no missions. It was odd simply because they never spent more then a few days in one of their hide-outs and even then that was rare. Pain wanted them spending every free minute they had searching for their jinchuriki. It didn't make any sense, but who was he to question their leader.

Itachi said nothing as usual. After five years Kisame was more then used to it by now though. He just gave another one of he's toothy grins and continued walking.

* * *

I was shocked at what I'd just been told. My eyes were wide, mouth slightly hanging open and mind a whiling haze. "You mean to tell me," I closed my mouth after what seemed like hours and swallowed excess saliva, making an almost gulping sound. "That some 'other' organisation, one with past experience with our leader," I paused, trying to find the correct words, or any at all really. "Somehow found out about the leaders child, and are now trying to gather info about them?" For the first time a long time I was truly frightened, practically shaking to the core. Who could want to know about me? What did this mean for me? How much did they really know? And most of all, what were they planning to do once they found out what they wanted?

"Yes." They both said in sync. It seemed they knew a lot more then they first remembered. They had been with the guy Sasori had killed for so long, and also been kept out of the loop for so long they'd forgotten what they were supposed to be finding out, but once they'd started talking about who hired them, everything came back. They still couldn't tell me how much their 'boss' had knew, or how much he'd been able to tell anyone else, but the fact remained, someone knew about me. Someone who was willing to pay a lot of money to find out even more.

I fell back into the wall, my head still spinning with thoughts of what it could all mean, when the door beside me opened to revel Sasori.

"That's enough. We've got all we need." Sasori looked at me waiting, for what I wasn't too sure, but when I got my bearings and stood back up he seemed pleased enough and walked back out of the room.

Looking back at the two men, I walked out as well, following Sasori to where ever it was he was headed. I knew I had to tell my father what I'd just found out, but I needed time to wrap my own head around it first. It was just to unreal. Apart of me was saying that everything was just a dream. None of this was real. But I knew better then that. It was happening, and it was very real indeed.

After ten or so minutes we finally came to a hall I knew, but instead of separating and going our different ways I continued to follow the red headed boy in front of me. I didn't know why. It wasn't like we were 'friends' or anything but, something was telling me I should, that I would be safe, how stupid did that sound right? But the strange thing was, was that he didn't tell me to stop. Didn't really seem to care at all, if I didn't know any better I'd say he didn't even know I was there.

"That was your first time interrogating right?" His voice broke through the silence that had been almost deafening, and I was glad he did although I was also surprised as well.

"That obvious?" I tried to smile but it came out looking more like a grimace then anything else.

"Not really." Was that...a compliment? "You didn't pretty well." Ok. _That_ was defiantly a compliment. 'What the hell? Wait why does my face feel so warm? Oh my god! A-am I...blushing? Oh god I am!' I started to feel warm not only on my face, but over my whole body. A light feeling in my chest, what was going on? "For a first timer."

And he ruined it.

My face still red, though from anger now, I pushed past him and went straight to my room. Muttering under my breath about stupid red heads the whole way.

* * *

Sasori smirked as the young girl stormed off. He was only teasing her, she did actually do a really good job. She got more out of them then Pain himself did which was a feat onto itself. Still the look on her face was worth it.

Once Sasori was in his own room and sat down at his work bench and looked out the window. The clouds were hiding the sun as usual, but he could tell that the sky was saying good bye to the last rays for the night, meaning it had to be at least 6:30. It wasn't any wonder he was getting hungry.

The boy was still getting use to being human again. After having been a puppet for so long, simple things like craving food for sustenance was startling. Sasori decided that he'd have a shower first though and a change of clothes. Another thing about being human he had to remember, frequent bathing and changing clothes, while he was a puppet the only time he'd need to change what he wore, was if he had somehow managed to become to damaged to wear. Other wise he didn't bother, it wasn't like he had to deal perspiration or anything like that.

But now he had to do all those things again, and it was just...weird.

After his shower he got dried and dressed, and finally started for the kitchen to get something to eat, though about half way to his destination, Sasori ran into an old friend, well the closest thing he had to one.

"Sasori-danna!" Sasori stopped walking and waited for the blonde to catch up. "Hey, your looking pretty good for only waking up a few days ago." Deidara greeted with a massive grin. While not on a mission he always did have a child like nature to him. Some would have called it refreshing, Sasori on the other hand mostly just found it annoying.

"Your back from your mission I see." Sasori noted and went back to his plan of getting food for his now very empty stomach.

"Yeah, it was pretty easy, kinda boring too." Deidara said as he fell in toe with his ex-partner. "Heard you had one as well. How did it go? Your still recovering right?"

"It went well, I suppose." The now younger of the two, if in body alone, strolled into the deserted kitchen and started rummaging around for something to eat. "Kaiya was annoyingly concerned over my health the whole time."

"Doesn't surprise me."

"Why not." Sasori asked, only giving his comrade half of his attention since he was still looking through the cupboards.

"Well she spent over a month trying to save you, so she's probably really worried something will happen and screw it all up." Deidara explain lightly, lifting his head to the ceiling and briefly shutting his eyes. "It's just the way she is."

"Just the way who is?"

bringing his head back down at lightening speed, he sent the new comer a nervous laugh while rubbing the back of his neck. "No one Kaiya."

* * *

As I watched Deidara slightly freaking out, over what though was anyone's guess, I shrugged, smiled to the two boys and went about making a late lunch, ignoring what was going on behind me.

By the time I'd sat down and was able to dig into me meal, Sasori had left and Deidara was sitting down next to me looking pointedly. "What?"

"Nothing!" Deidara threw his hands into the air with a great smile on his face. "It's just that, since I first met Sasori, he's never 'clicked' with someone as fast as you." He slowly dropped his hands back down and leaned back into his seat. "It took him almost a year to get used to me, even now he's still a bit if-y sometimes."

"Well he didn't talked to me for almost a whole day expect to yell at me about 'ruining his art'." I folded my arms over my chest and pushed out my bottom lip in a pout. He just laughed at me.

"Yeah he's very closed minded about his art, same as myself really," The blonde paused and suddenly went dark. "Although we've never come to an agreement on what real art is."

I giggled a little, almost chocking on the last mouth-full of my food, and stood up to clean the last on the mess I'd made. "Yeah, he was very touchy on that subject." I said with a soft smile.

If I had looked back to the boy in the room with me, I would have seen the light bulb go off on top of his head and the tiny hint of a smirk, as dots connected and wheels turned, and the start of a plan formed in his mind.

A plan that, would make my life a living hell.

* * *

Okay DONT KILL ME PLEASE! :'( I'm so so so so so soooooo sorry about taking so long to write this chapter! It was a hard one for me, and also I've been having personal problems that have left me little time, energy or creativity to write unfortunately. But the last half of this chapter seemed to come easier so I might be back to writing more and so I'll hopefully be able to post them faster maybe every week or two? I did try to make it a little longer then my normal size but it just seemed to end there well, so yeah. Hope you liked it and weren't to disappoint! Oh if there are mistakes sorry I haven't had it proof read yet so when I do I'll re-post the edited version though there shouldn't be any actual changes so you wont need to re-read it. :) much love Tomboi cherryblossom 3


End file.
